[Jake_George]

#1066926

Your OB and primary care doctor will have to work closely together. Some of the medications used to treat hyperthyroid can cross the placenta barrier to the fetus. So getting the two of them to work and talk to you and your husband should help to elevate your concerns.
Are you seeing an endocrinologist as opposed to a GP for your thyroid levels? Normally if your levels are set to a proper level you should not see any increase in dangers for the pregnancy. But getting your levels into the normal range is very important.
There are a number of women on here who were in your position and I hope they answer your posts. Welcome to our board and we look forward to following how well you do until the baby is born. We love babies…
We are only a click away.

[anji726]

#1066927

Thank you so much for your timely response it means so much to me! I am not currently seeing an endo…but my OB and PCP are part of the same facility which makes it easier for them to work together. Last I knew my levels were under control and then changed "drastically" with my pregnancy. I will post more once my PCP calls me back to explain everything. Again, thank you so much for kind welcome and response! It would be wonderful to hear from woman who have had similar experiences. I also wanted to let you know that I currently take PTU which I’ve heard is not suppose to be so bad in pregnancy??

[snelsen]

#1066928

A BIG congratulations to you and your husband about your pregnancy. I suggest you ask either your PCP and/or your OB for them names of a couple endocrinologists who work with Grave’s in your area. Do you live in a place large enough to have this choice? Of course these numbers mean nothing to you at this time. I guess the big message to you, is that you do need to have an endocrinologist working in close tandem with you, and with your OB. You did not say if you were hypo, or hyper. When you contact an endocrinologist, you should say that you re newly pregnant. Get a print-out from your OB of your labs to have for your records. If your insurance requires you to have a referral, probably it makes sense for your OB to refer, but you can certainly get names of endocrinologists from both your OB and/or PCP. YOu will feel confident once this step is accomplished, and you will also feel better physically! It is probably difficult for you to differentiate the fatigue of pregnancy from the fatigue you might have if you re hypothyroid. a I imagine the administrator of this site will be responding soon, and that should be helpful to you also. Best wishes, this is a great and responsible site, glad you found it.
shirley

[snelsen]

#1066929

Hi Anji, what a nice reply from Jake! I certainly agree with him that it is important to have oversight of your thyroid status and your pregnancy. Do you live in a major metropolitan area, small town, or in between? Will my suggestions in my prior email be difficult for you to follow up, or fairly easy? Does your insurance let you self-refer, or do you need a referral from a doc?

[LaurelM]

#1066930

Hi,

I was on methimazole (and well controlled – probably heading for remission) when I became pregnant wth our 2nd. Mother nature sent her a little ahead of schedule. As soon as we knew I was pregnant (which was within a couple of weeks) I was switched to PTU. It was a small dose – only some of which I could keep down. I was able to stop the PTU after about 6 weeks. Our ‘baby’ just turned 3 in October and is a very happy, healthy little girl.

It is critical that your levels are monitored very closely and treated appropriately. Too much maternal thyroid homone can trigger a miscariage. Too little can affect the cognitive development of the baby.

As soon as we knew I was pregnant, I was sent to a high risk OB, a perinatologist, who worked closely with my endo (and they both kept my PCP in the loop). While I was probably one of their most ‘boring’ patients as everything went smoothly, it was reasurring to know that I was getting the best possible care. If you are not hearing back reasonably quickly from your Dr, don’t keep waiting. Call back. This is a time sensitive issue.

You will need to inform your baby’s Dr after he/she is born of your thyroid history. They will need to monitor your baby a little extra closely for a couple of months for a very rare condidtion called neonatal graves. This is a temporary condition caused by the maternal auto-antibodies crossing the placenta and causing the baby to be temporarily hyperthyroid. This is VERY VERY (did I mention VERY VERY) rare.

If you are still on PTU or swapped to methimazole after delivery it may or may not affect your ability to nurse. I was diagnosed post-partum with our first. I was able to continue nursing while taking methimazole but our baby’s thyroid levels were monitored every couple of months. Different Dr.s will have different opinions on this issue. I was comfortable that my endo, my baby’s dr, and a pediatric endo from a major children’s hospital were all in agreement.

There are lots of women on this board that have have been pregnant during treatment. I’m sure you will get some more responses.

Congratulations. I hope your have as ‘boring’ a pregnancy as mine.

Laurel

[snelsen]

#1066931

Hi Anji, Laurel’s reply is "right on." Everything she said is perfect for your situation. That is the team you need. Hope you can follow through on those suggestions. Don’t worry about the term "high risk." There are docs who are very skilled in pregnancies that are not "run of the mill," and you may end up with one of those docs. A lot depends on where you live, depending on the number of docs available to you. When you have this team on board, plus a perinatologist for that sweet baby, you will do well. Go, girl!

[anji726]

#1066932

Hi Shirley! Thank you so much for your reply. I am in a pretty small area in Maine and only moved here about 7 months ago. I am going to speak with my OB about an endocrinologist as suggested and hopefully that will help! I actually have Grave’s disease so I am Hyper sorry if I did not mention that and I only found out about this a couple of months ago. My husband and I had been trying when I got every sign and symptom I was pregnant except for a positive pregnancy test….the only positive I got was thyroid disease ” title=”Wink” />
I’m very glad I found this site as well! And very glad you responded you have made me feel a lot better!

[anji726]

#1066933

Laurel….THANK YOU SOOO much!! I am also on a low dose of PTU…I believe my dose will be changing if my Dr ever calls me back today. Like I said in my original post, the last info I had received was that my levels looked great so that was a good thing. Now that I am pregnant they are saying they are out of wack…I’m anxiously awaiting a call from my PCP. I’m actually getting ready to contact them again as we speak. Dr’s can over look things that mean SO much to you…and it’s very frustrating!
Now you said that after 6 weeks you were able to stop the PTU? Did your Grave’s go into remission while you were pregnant? I have read a couple of articles stating that could happen. I really can’t thank you enough for all of your wonderful recommendations I’m sooo glad I found this site. I will keep you posted on my numbers and what the dr has to say. I had some blood work done yesterday and I am also having blood work done at 7am tomorrow and have an appt with my OB at 2pm tomorrow….seems like my OB is really on top of things which is reassuring…my PCP on the other hand, well I might just have to call her again!!

[Bobbi]

#1066934

Perhaps it would help, anji, if you know a little about pregnancy and thyroid needs. As the pregnancy goes along, the body requires different levels of thyroid hormone. Since your thyroid is not working normally, you will need to be monitored closely, and your dose of PTU will likely be changed more frequently than it might otherwise.

One of the things I’ve read the body does in pregnancy is to slightly suppress the immune system. That allows the baby to develop without the mother’s body developing antibodies to the baby’s tissues. Since our disease is caused by antibody levels, when the immune system is somewhat suppressed, the antibody levels go down, and our symptoms may disappear. This is another reason why our blood levels need to be monitored closely during pregnancy. It is not uncommon for women with Graves to go off the meds at some point in the pregnancy, or only to have to take a very small dose, only to have to go back on them at some later point in time after the baby’s birth.

It is exciting to be expecting your first baby. Congradulations! And I do wish you an easy time of things.

[LaurelM]

#1066935

Yes I did go into remission. I was plesantly surprised to remain in remission post-partum after our 2nd baby. It has now been almost 4 years off ATDs. For that first 12 months I was kind of just waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop but it never did. My endo actually ‘fired’ me and currently my PCP checks my levels once or twice a year. With two small children I wasn’t even reading this board for a couple of years but it was a lifeline at the time I needed it so I started checking back in once in awhile. It had been so helpful to hear from people who had been there and done that.

[anji726]

#1018761

I’m 25 years old and found out about 5 months ago that I have Grave’s disease. I also just found out that I am about 5 weeks pregnant. My husband and I are thrilled but at the same time we are sooo scared. I went in for blood work yesterday and my numbers came back off. They didn’t tell me anything on the phone about my numbers. My OB stated I need to contact my PCP (which I did) because my OB does not handle thyroid issues and I have not heard anything back. I just want everything to be ok we have wanted a baby for a long time and now that it’s happening I’m afraid something is going to happen. Does anyone have any helpful info or encouraging words.

Thank you so much.

[Author]

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