Thyroid Antibodies

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   Hi everyone,

Does anyone else have issues with thyroid antibodies? 

I'm interested in hearing how others have treated them and if they have caused issues - eg miscarriages for other people.

I have had two miscarriages (MC) in a short timeframe(less than 5 months apart). I got pregnant on the first try in Aug 11, then lost the baby at 11w, 5d, and assessed the baby as having died at approx 8 weeks. Got pregnant again in Jan, then MC at 12weeks, mid Mar 12. We found out that time through an ultrasound after some specks of blood.  The EPAU clinic of course said they would not investigate till I'd had 3 MC. 

I had no obvious reason for the MC's (I'm super duper healthy, do at least 3 mths pre-conception care eg no alcohol, coffee etc, take a zillion pre-natal supplements, accupuncture etc. I also wasn't working so had no stress nor a busy lifestyle, especially with the 2nd pregnancy.

However Fertility Associates had flagged before my first pregnancy that I had a potentially low TSH - thyroid. (I wasn't under their care for either pregnancy though.)  But I got pregnant easily twice in a row, and then had a TSH test at 10 wks of my first pregnancy which showed up normal. So with the second pregnancy we didn't think about it again. I told my two different midwives about the possible hypothyroidism and also spoke to my GP about it but none suggested any further monitoring or tests. 

After the second baby died at 8 weeks, and after the EPAU (Early Pregnancy Assement Unit) clinician and my GP said nothing could be looked at till my third MC we started considering the thyroid again. (We figured since the baby had died at 8 weeks, maybe the thyroid levels had returned to normal afterwards and that's why the test at 10wks was fine.) Turns out the brain is developing at 8 weeks, and the brain needs iodine to grow etc so we were starting to wonder if that may be linked...Research indicated that thyroid issues were a top cause for MC at around 5-8 weeks. 

Well had some great news last week - well great news wrapped in kind of an scary wrapping. I'd consulted a naturopath (Loula George at Motherwell in Mt Eden - who specialises in infertility and MC's), and had a stack of blood tests done. In total she sent me for 17 different tests, lots of blood! And my new GP was happy to oblige even though he didn't know what half of them were for :-)

When we got the results back my thyroid (TSH) is low, but only marginally - they said just to retest in 3 months, (T3 and T4 are fine), but it was the thyroid antibodies that no-one had tested before that were the real problem! They should each be less than 60 and were 500 & 1300. As well as attacking the thyroid, (as I understood her simple way of explaining it to me), they can also attack the foetus. I have been reading up and people with thyroid antibodies are shown to be 4x more likely to MC. 

So we are doing a major detox then starting a naturopathic treatment programme to try and reduce the antibodies. It's scary to have them, but it's a huge relief to have an idea of what has previously been inexplicable. At least this way we can try and treat and then monitor the situation. She's managed other women with this problem through successful pregnancies, so I'm so much more hopeful. 

I'm also a bit pissed off that when I flagged the potential thyroid problem to the medical people, that no one suggested checking my antibodies! A simple blood test showed their levels and even the GP was a bit horrified, even though the regular thyroid tests came back low - normal range.

So as well as asking for others stories of diagnosis, treatment and monitoring - and hopefully you'll have some success stories for me...the other point of this LONG message is...do your research, trust your instinct, consider alternative medicine (especially when combined with proof through blood tests etc as you can monitor the effects of treatment), and specifically if you have any thyroid abnormalities then consider asking for a thyroid antibody test!!!

Here's hoping I can eventually add our success story to these threads :-)

PS - I'm hardly ever on the internet lately as I access ohbaby from my iPhone (and frustratingly can't login!), but if you write on here I'll endeavour to go online and answer any questions. But don't think me rude if you reply and I don't respond straight away!