[snelsen]

#1018736

I don’t think this topic will apply to many people, but here is my background and question. I have never gotten a finite answer to this situation. I have always wondered if the information I was told is correct.
I was pregnant when I was 23, delivered @24. Almost immediately had thyrotocicosis. I was losing weight, had heat intolerance, was eating 4000 calories/day, losing weight, breast feeding, and working full time as an RN. I was diagnosed with post partum thyrotoxicosis, not sure if that word is used today, but I had hyperthyroidism. Treated with PTU on several different trials, became euthyroid, the drug was withdrawn, and a reverted to being very toxic with all the same symptoms. RAI was not used at that time. I had a subtotal thyroidectomy.
THE QUESTION. Does the thyoid gland make more thyroxin for the baby? And I was told that with the delivery of the placenta, there was a loop back mechanism where the pituitary gland signaled the thyroid gland to revert to prior production of thyroxin. And, basically, the delivery of the baby/placenta did not signal the pituitary gland to tell the thyroid gland to decrease thyroxin production. The outcome being diagnosed as post partum thyrotixicosis, and/or Grave’s.
Of interest, after the surgery, I was euthyroid for almost 35 years, on Synthroid after that, and developed my visual problems of TED fifty years later!
Thanks to anyone who has thoughts on this matter. The facts have proved very elusive.

[Bobbi]

#1066807

The most common time for developing Graves (and, perhaps, autoimmune issues in general) is associated in women with puberty, pregnancy or menopause. This is "on average" and not a "rule." Obviously, some people develop the disease at other points in their lives that have nothing to do with hormonal changes. (And here, the mention of hormone means estrogen, progestin, etc., not necessarily thyroid hormone.)

During pregnancy, hormonal changes prevail, but it is also thought that the woman’s body suppresses the immune system in order to protect the developing baby from antibody attack from the mother’s body. It is very common to hear of women developing autoimmune issues during or just after pregnancy.

I have never heard of a backloop feedback from the placenta, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. There are undoubtedly many "feedback" mechanisms at work once a baby is delivered, for the mother’s body to go back to pre-pregnancy "normal." The body is hugely complex.

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