The low or high levels of thyroid hormone can change the course of pregnancy and seriously affect the future of the mother and the baby. It is a serious problem that can cause developmental disorders and mental retardation in the baby, as well as causing the mother to miscarry. For this reason, if the mother has a thyroid disease diagnosed before pregnancy, she should have a pregnancy under the supervision of a gynecologist, an internal medicine specialist, and if necessary, an endocrinologist.
Thyroid diseases occurring in pregnant women
Goiter, hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism are the diseases that are at the top of the list. Apart from these, there is an increase in the diameter of the thyroid nodule and the possibility of new nodules during pregnancy.
Who is at increased risk of developing thyroid disease during pregnancy?
The risk of thyroid disease is higher in pregnant women who have blood relatives with thyroid disease, diabetes, i.e. sugar disease and goiter. The risk is higher in women who have type 1 diabetes before pregnancy, have high anti-TPO antibodies in their blood or have had thyroid disease before. Apart from all these, thyroid hormone tests of women who have had a previous miscarriage should definitely be monitored during pregnancy.
People with hypothyroidism must complete their treatment before getting pregnant. What needs to happen is that the expectant mother should get pregnant while her thyroid hormones are completely normal. However, if pregnancy has occurred before this, her thyroid hormone levels should be corrected as early as possible to get rid of hypothyroidism.
In expectant mothers, thyroid ultrasound and biopsy are not harmful to either the mother or the baby in any way. However, thyroid scintigraphy cannot be applied to these patients.
What people with thyroid disease should do before and during pregnancy, treatment techniques, and whether the disease and medication have any harm to the baby are stated in our articles below.
Can thyroid diseases cause infertility in women? Which problems related to the thyroid cause infertility?
Thyroid hormones are hormones that are as important as estrogen in women's lives. The reason for this is that thyroid hormones start when puberty begins and menstruation begins. For this reason, it is an effective factor during pregnancy, menopause and every other period.
Just as getting pregnant can be delayed during puberty, imbalances in thyroid hormones, under- or over-activity of the hormone can affect getting pregnant.
Thyroid dysfunctions and diseases related to the thyroid can manifest themselves in different ways in women. In some women with thyroid disease, problems such as pregnancy and infertility can occur while they have a thyroid disease before; in some women with thyroid disease, it can manifest itself during pregnancy even though there is no problem.
How does a low thyroid function during pregnancy affect the baby's intelligence level? Is it appropriate to use thyroid medication during pregnancy, and do these medications pose a problem for the baby?
Hypothyroidism is a problem that needs to be corrected before pregnancy occurs. It is ideal for both the mother and the baby for pregnancy to occur when the mother's thyroid hormones are completely normal. However, if pregnancy occurs before this problem is corrected, thyroid hormone levels need to be corrected immediately and hypothyroidism needs to be eliminated.
At this stage, the expectant mother should never doubt using her medication; the reason for this is that the thyroid hormone given at that time will not harm the baby or the expectant mother in any way. On the contrary, not using the medication may negatively affect the baby's intelligence and neurological development. For this reason, it causes problems not because the medication is used, but because it is not used. Hyperthyroidism progresses in a slightly different way. Experts may be willing to act a little more flexibly in the hyperthyroidism problem. Since it may be related to pregnancy, when hyperthyroidism manifests itself, the first thing to do is to examine what is causing it. If these reasons are reasonable and the values are appropriate, it is possible to monitor hyperthyroidism without medication for a while, provided that it does not harm the mother.
However, in cases where medication is absolutely necessary, the expectant mother should not hesitate. The reason for this is that if the doctor predicts that it will not have a negative effect on the baby, he will recommend that the expectant mother be given thyroid hormone.
Is it harmful for the baby to have an ultrasound and thyroid scintigraphy during pregnancy?
Thyroid ultrasound and biopsy are actions that have no negative aspects for either the mother or the baby, but thyroid scintigraphy cannot be performed and cannot be applied in any way.
Could repeated IVF failure be due to a thyroid problem in the expectant mother?
It can be observed that women with diseases such as Hashimoto's disease, Grays' disease, which are well-known diseases called thyroid autoimmunity, cannot achieve success in in vitro fertilization attempts.
In these cases, sometimes even if the thyroid hormones are normal, it is possible to use medication according to the antibody level or thyroid symptoms. In addition to all these, the medications used in in vitro fertilization treatments can increase the tendency to hypothyroidism because they increase estrogen.
In these cases, it may be necessary to use thyroid hormones. The widespread use of in vitro fertilization in recent years has significantly increased the number of applications to specialists on this subject.
Is it appropriate to apply radioactive iodine (atomic) therapy during pregnancy? How long after radioactive iodine therapy can a woman become pregnant?
Just like radioactivity and scintigraphy, it is a condition that needs to be protected during pregnancy. Therefore, it is not right to apply it. If a woman who has had radioactive iodine treatment has had this treatment with a low dose, she can get pregnant after a period of six months or a year. The ideal period recommended and deemed appropriate by experts is one year. She can get pregnant after this period. If this treatment is given with higher doses, it would be the healthiest to extend it to one and a half to two years.
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