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I haven’t posted on this forum for probably nearly a year but remember the many threads I read on getting pregnant after RAI so I thought I would come back and post an update. In addition, the interwebs in general don’t have a lot of happy news about a woman my age having Graves disease and having kids so hopefully this post will give someone the hope I wish I would have had.
I am one year and four months post RAI and I am now slightly over three months pregnant. We’re due in November. Everything is perfectly on track, and ALL of my doctors are happy (OB, Endocrinologist, Perinatologist) although all closely watching as well. I didn’t have one single doctor discourage me from trying to have another baby. My general practioner was the only one who even raised an eyebrow and that was because she was worried I’d have trouble getting pregnant because of my age (so nothing at all to do with the Graves or the treatment)
A little background….I was diagnosed with Graves after my first son was born when he was eight months old. Things moved at warp speed at that point. My wonderful endocrinologist walked me through my options and jointly we decided on RAI immediately BECAUSE I wanted to have one more baby. He said the anti-thyroid meds have a slightly higher risk of having an impact to a fetus and that was all I needed to hear to say not the option I wanted. I knew with the RAI I’d have to wait although my doctors said six months rather than the typical one year I normally hear. I waited until my levels were stabalized which didn’t take long. I was treated in January of 2011 and by June 2011 I was stable. We started trying to get pregnant in September and although it did take six months that’s pretty typical of anyone. I did get pregnant immediately with my son, even at 36, so the six months did make me a bit nervous.
I have to admit I have an awesome network of doctors. They all talk to each other, freely give information, take blood at one office and run labs the other doctors want so I don’t get stuck more than necessary, and they are ALL watching things closely and reassuring me when I have concerns. My biggest fear was the neonatal graves…and although I guess it is a risk….my endocrinologist (who has been practicing so long he’s close to retirement) explained why it was such a low risk, what they would do if it happened and that in all of his many years of practice and 1000s of Graves patients he’s had who have had children he’s never once seen it happen.
Overall, I feel completely normal. I take my little synthroid pill every morning and basically that’s about it. Once the RAI killed off my thryoid, all of my symptoms stopped and I’ve never had anything linger. I did gain back the 30 pounds I’d lost but that’s a small price to pay
I hope this post gives someone on this thread the hope they may be looking for. RAI isn’t for everyone. My endo did said he would have opted to at least try the anti-thryoid meds prior to RAI if I hadn’t wanted to have another baby so quickly but he tends to be conservative.
So bottom line – there is hope for more kids even if you are in your late 30’s and have been diagnosed and treated for this disease. One last shoutout too to the administrators of this forum. I would imagine it’s pretty easy to be treated and just go about your normal life aftwards. I know that I don’t tend to frequent this forum anymore because things are fine so thanks for those of you who take the time to keep this forum going
My endo already started that testing at 12 weeks. I should get the results tomorrow. He said if the levels were high he wanted to let the perinatologist know immediately so that they could be aware of additional monitoring. If for some reason the levels are high, he said at that point they would want to monitor the baby’s heartbeat and that the perinatologist would probably be doing more frequent testing to assure the baby wasn’t receiving the anti-bodies. He also plans to continue testing that level every four weeks along with my thyroid level tests. They’re also going to continually monitor my Vitamin D levels since those seem to tank anytime I stop taking a Vitamin D supplement (I have no idea if this is Graves related or not but it didn’t start until I was diagnosed). So my OB is going to run the labs each and every time I go see her and my endo was contacting my perinatologist office with the results so I could discuss with her at my normal appointment tomorrow. I’m not sure if most hospital networks handle things so smoothly/thoroughly or not but I am incredibly grateful that I seem to have a great team working together for me
So for anyone reading this thread that is wondering about neonatal graves – this is what my endo told me (in kindergarten terms which I need
. The anti-body molecules are ‘really big’…much bigger then what can normally pass through to the placenta…so the possibility of them being able to pass through to the placenta is very difficult and hence why it’s rare, although not impossible. If a baby is born with neonatal graves they will have a pediatric endo specialist immediately assigned to the baby who will most likely put them on beta-blockers and within a couple of weeks the anti-bodies usually work their way out of the baby’s systems and all is fine I’m incredibly lucky also that I will give birth at a hospital where there is also a children’s hospital as well so I have access to some of the most wonderful pediatric specialists available anywhere near me .Congratulations!!!
I hope everything works out for you and your baby. It looks like everything is going well and you have a great medical team on your side. Let us know how things are going. Have a happy, healthy & enjoyable pregnancy. I have 4 boys, but we probably won’t have anymore. But who’s to say I guess. That’s the fun thing about life- you just never know what kind of amazing miracles are around the corner.Alexis
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