[aussiekell]

#1059746

Hi ladies, I am currently 20 weeks pregnant with my fourth child this is my first pregnancy since contracting Graves’ disease and tbh I am petrified of everything. Baby’s health my health ect ect. But my biggest concern is how early should I be expecting my baby. The other three children have all come before 37 weeks gestation and that’s without having Graves’ disease and I have been told to expect at least 4 weeks premmie due to the graves so should I be adding on my usual three weeks premmie to the four weeks early with graves because if so i have to be prepared to get flown out to the nearer capital city in order to have my baby( they won’t deliver you here before 36 weeks). How premmie were you were you and bub ok? Did your disease come back with a mighty punch? Please help finding it very hard to find answers on likelyhood of any of my questions and i am scared

[Kimberly]

#1177231

Hello – I saw your other message before this one, but am cutting & pasting the reply…

We have many women who have posted here who have gone on to have healthy babies, so hopefully, you will get some additional responses from them as well.

Take care!

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Hello – For women who are pregnant and have uncontrolled hyperthyroidism, this does increase the risk of premature birth, as well as other potential complications. If you are currently hyperthyroid, your doctors should be working with you to get your levels stabilized. For women whose levels are stable, I’m not familiar with Graves’ itself causing an early delivery. In the first trimester, PTU is the recommended anti-thyroid drug, because it is considered safer for the baby. After that, a switch to Methimazole/Tapazole/neomercazole/carbimazole is suggested, due to the lower risk of liver complications in the mother. This link to a guidance document on pregnancy from the American Thyroid Association will hopefully be of interest. The section on Graves’ and pregnancy starts on page 1094 of the original journal article (or page 14 if you download the document as a PDF). http://thyroidguidelines.net/sites/thyroidguidelines.net/files/file/thy.2011.0087.pdf This piece goes into important issues such as the use of PTU during the first trimester of pregnancy, antibody testing during pregnancy to see if there is a risk of Graves’ antibodies being passed on to the fetus, and the use of anti-thyroid drugs during breastfeeding. Hope this helps – wishing you all the best!

[aussiekell]

#1177232

Thanks kimberly, as it stands I am not sure of my current levels I was only at a normal level for just over a month when I found out I was pregnant and haven’t been tested since because I was told that pregnancy sends you ino remission and that your levels stabilise while pregnant… I see a doctor this week again so will definitely be chasing all of this up but would definitely love other women’s experiences and stories please

[LaurelM]

#1177233

Hi!

Congratulations on your bundle of joy to be!

I was orignally diagnosed postpartum with our first. I was still in treatment on Methimazole when we got pregnant with our 2nd. I was switched to PTU for about 6 weeks (what I could keep down anyway – baaaad morning sickness with each of my pregnancies) when I was taken all the way off ATDs. My pregnancy was very normal and my daughter was born exactly on her due date. I was suprised as our first baby was 10 days early so I kept expecting #2 to be a few days early as well. She is now a very healthy and happy 6 year old.

I actually remained in remission until last spring and now am back on ATDs. We were expecting to need to continue treatment sometime postpartum but my levels stayed normal.

After our first, I was still nursing when diagnosed. My endo wanted me to keep nursing so we did not do any uptake scans and diagnosed my based on the TSI and other blood work. We did have to periodically test our baby’s thyroid levels due to the possibility of ATDs passing through the breastmilk. This was done with a heal stick and there were never any issues. I initally started treatment on a high dose of Methimazole and was tapered down over a few months to a low dose.

Let me know if you have any other questions I can answer about my experience.

Laurel

[Kimberly]

#1177234

aussiekell wrote:

I was only at a normal level for just over a month when I found out I was pregnant and haven’t been tested since because I was told that pregnancy sends you ino remission and that your levels stabilise while pregnant…

Sometimes this *does* happen, but not in every case! *Please* be extremely assertive with your doctor in demanding regular testing throughout your pregnancy. This is important both for your health *and* your baby’s! You will also want to discuss antibody testing with your doc at the 20-24 week mark, to evaluate the risk of antibodies being passed on to your baby.

I just posted a link in this thread to some guidance that will hopefully be of interest:

(Note on links: if you click directly on the following link, you will need to use your browser’s “back” button to return to the boards after viewing, or you will have to log back in to the forum. As an alternative, you can right-click the link and open it in a new tab or new window).

http://gdatf.org/forum/topic/43315/

Take care!

[LaurelM]

#1177235

Hi Again,

I should have added that I was being closely followed by a high-risk OB, my endo, and our family/baby doc to ensure that the pregnancy was on track. I had more frequent blood work and an extra ultrasound or two to make sure everything looked normal (thyroid levels at normal levels for pregnancy and the baby’s growth & heartrate were normal). Be sure that your Dr’s are being dilligent. They can treat you and the baby during the pregnancy if required. My OB kept telling me it was nice to have a patient with a ‘boring’ pregnancy. Of course, he wasn’t the one heaving his breakfast every day.

Best wishes,
Laurel

[aussiekell]

#1177236

Thank you xx

[adenure]

#1177237

I was diagnosed after my 4th was born, and have not had any children since having Graves. A friend of mine though got Graves after her 1st baby. She took methimazole and PTU off and on for the following 10 years and had 3 children during all of that! All her babies were/are healthy and she breastfed them all as well. She had a thyroidectomy about 4 months ago I think.

[Author]

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