[snelsen]

#1063103

Hi lhc11! I remember you very well! Glad you are on the other side of your surgery, for that is the beginning of your path to trying to conceive! Certainly the proctitis is not a bit fun. Are you being treated with either antibiotics, steroids or both? It usually goes away with treatment, best wishes in that area.
I would think your reproductive endo could answer some of your concerns. I know you are well versed in all of this, but he seems like the guy to discuss this with, especially because you re seeing him today or tomorrow.
I think you are very typical of someone who is really trying to get pregnant, and each month seems like a year! I know time is of the essence. But you have a pretty good battle plan laid out already, I think. Have you and your husband decided a atime line for trying with no assitance, then moving to fertility options? That is what my kids did. The tried for 3 years, then they went to IVF, and that took a relatively long time (5 tries) before babies, which she had when she was 40+. She says now that she wishes they had not tried so long before moving to IVF. You have gone through a lot, to get to the stage of actively trying to conceive. I have no idea if these small thyroid lab fluctuations mean anything at all. You might ask if there is good EVIDENCE BASED literature to support anything related to minute changes.
I seem to remember that you two are living at different academic centers because of work? Is that correct? I did not go back to review all your posts. If so, perhaps there were times when timing was a bit off? And, if you had an unusually heavy period, it is possible that it was an early miscarriage. I know I had that experience a couple of times,and there is no way to really know for sure when it is so early, we could just hypothesize this is what happened.
So, those are my random thoughts. Look forward to hearing from you again..
Shirley

[lhc11]

#1063104

Hi Shirley,

Thanks for the response, and I hope you’re doing well, especially with your eyes and recovery from surgery. Re: the proctitis, I was treated in September (after a colonoscopy, blecch) with steroids (cortifoam) and Canasa, the aminosalicylic (sp?) suppository (no antibiotics because it’s not caused by bacteria, which is how they know it is autoimmune); the problem cleared up and currently I’m back on some Canasa because of possibly returning symptoms. I’m still in the process of figuring out where my body is with all that, and will have a re-check with my gastroenterologist in a few months or earlier if I/they think I need it. It annoys me to have this additional health issue more than I’m actually admitting here, but this isn’t a proctitis support board!

Re: conceiving, we’ve been working with a RE and assisted conception (that is, medicated and monitored IUI cycles) since right after my thyroid levels stabilized in July; we did that precisely because of our respective ages (I turned 39 this August) and because of our living situation, rather than waiting any longer to have it happen again naturally (as it did once, the very first time we tried to conceive, which was the first and only time I was pregnant in late summer/fall 2009, which ended in miscarriage–perhaps sparking, or perhaps caused by, the Graves, which of course I then had to deal with once it was finally diagnosed, putting conception on hold until this past summer). I set all of that up with the RE before I even had the thyroidectomy; given my age and our distance this September-May there was no reason to wait. So I have had 5 (unfortunately unsuccessful) IUIs since this August and will have my 6th (and last) in the next week (which is another reason why I wanted to check my thyroid levels); I was not ready to go to IVF before this last round (package deal) of 3 IUIs, particularly given that I got pregnant so easily (and naturally) the very first time around and because the RE was initially confident about this less-invasive mode of treatment for us (no problems on either side except age in my case!), but if the next IUI doesn’t work (and I’ve lost most hope about that at this point), we will have to take a break until May/June, when we will indeed do IVF (since, yes, we still don’t live together during the academic year, and I don’t want to do the injections for IVF on my own) if we don’t manage it naturally over a couple of free weekends that (may) match up with my cycle during the spring semester. BUT there is almost no way I can do as many IVFs as your daughter did; it is out-of-pocket for us and I have family financial assistance for 1 or 2 attempts; I’d be unable to afford it after that unless–and there is actually a small chance of this–work moves me to a state with mandated fertility coverage. I would certainly have started trying to conceive long before now if I could have, but I only started dating my now husband in fall 2007 and only married him in summer 2009. In hindsight, I certainly wish we had had an "accident" before we got married; then again, that might have meant the Graves setting in even earlier than it did, which would not have been good at all (I actually got sick, professionally speaking, at the best possible time, with no ramifications for my work life; a little earlier and that would not have been true). I don’t think my period this time around was unusually heavy, it was just both heavy *and* short, which is what made me concerned about my thyroid levels; plus, it was exactly on time, so I really don’t think it was an early miscarriage.

Anyway, all of the above, except my heavy/short period, is only tangentially related to my concern about my TSH level; having learned today that it is "normal" for conception I’m now not worried that it is interfering, I’m only worried about my overall physical state and whether this change in the level and my other symptoms are potentially indicative of the start of a slide towards the hypo end of things. But I guess that’s something only more time (and tests) will actually tell.

cheers,
lhc11

[lhc11]

#1018175

Hi everyone,

So I’ve continued to do just fine–better than fine–post-thyroidectomy in early June. (This despite the fact that it seems I also now have autoimmune-caused proctitis, which is not pleasant but it seems to be basically under control now and not something I’m worried about, more annoyed by than anything else; I guess I can’t be surprised since we know autoimmune issues travel in packs). I’m still on 100 mcg of Synthroid–the same dose I started on after the surgery. The only real and serious issue is that I haven’t gotten pregnant yet, despite medical intervention (albeit not yet of the most radical sort), and so I’ve stayed on top of my endo asking for thyroid level tests to be sure everything is ok; I’ve been a little concerned as my weight goes back up that I’ll start to feel hypo and need a dosage upping (despite efforts to keep some of it off, and relatively regular exercise though not as regular or as vigorous as usual [in part because of trying to conceive and not wanting to overdo it during fertility treatments], I’ve gained back the 30 lbs I lost while hyper). Most recently, I asked for a thyroid level check this week because 1) I’ve been feeling colder than I usually do [of course, it is winter, but I seem to be feeling it and complaining about it more]; 2) I just had a very short but heavy menstrual period; 3) I’ve been having some circulation issues when I sleep — one or the other of my arms/hands losing feeling during the night [I’m a side/stomach sleeper, but this has never happened this often before]. I *don’*t feel the kind of tired-ness that those who have gone hypO have reported, but thought we should check anyway. The labs I got back today were: FT4 of 1.41 (range of .75-1.54, and in early October with that range I was at 1.3), and TSH of 2.33 (range .46-5.31, in October I was at 1.26).

So here’s my question: my endo is apparently not concerned about these numbers (though as usual I didn’t get to speak with her directly; I will see her on Jan. 26) and had her nurse tell me that a TSH between 1 and 2.5 is optimal for pregnancy (interestingly, I seem to remember her previously telling me that optimal was between 1 and 2). But I’m a little freaked out by the change in my TSH since October, particularly when the FT4 has actually gone up slightly rather than down. I will be seeing my reproductive endocrinologist tomorrow and will ask him about it, but I don’t think this is his specialty. As long as the TSH is in "normal" range I’m not worried for trying to get pregnant this month, and obviously I can take this all up with my endo when I see her in a month, but am wondering if anyone has any thoughts about the symptoms I’ve mentioned above alongside the almost doubling of my TSH in 3 months when the FT4 has remained stable. Is this a potential sign of starting to go hypo? Should I insist when I see the endo on another thyroid test? (If I don’t become pregnant, that is….if I do, I’ll need more regular monitoring of course).

Thanks for any thoughts. Best,
lhc11

[Kimberly]

#1063105

Hello – I can’t speculate on what you symptoms might mean, but I wanted to chime in on TSH levels. The Foundation’s recent newsletter featured an article on pregnancy planning and Graves’, and the range that was mentioned as optimal for conception was between 0.5 and 2.5.

Hope this helps!

[snelsen]

#1063106

I am not sure how to use that as a reference, because the range differs in different labs and around the country. Although the normal TSH ranges are not vastly different, small increments are relevant in this particular test. Just a thought
Shirley

[Author]

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