Hypothyroidism During Pregnancy and How I Got Better

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Can you cure hypothyroidism?? I developed it during pregnancy and found a way to get better…Read on…

First of all, I would like to state that I’m not an expert or anything, just a mum sharing my experience. I developed hypothyroidism in pregnancy and found a way to help myself and feel better.

When I was pregnant for the first time I was pretty healthy. Anemic, but that’s the problem I had since I was a child. At around 9 or 10 weeks pregnant I started to get weird symptoms. Every evening when I would calm down, and lay in front of the TV I started to get this terrible choking feeling in my chest. It would be painful with every breath like someone was sitting on my lounges.

After a couple of days, evenings started to freak me out. Every evening the same, later I could hardly fall asleep from the chest pain. In the morning everything would be back to normal.

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AM I GOING MAD??

After a week or so I went for my regular checkup. My gynecologist said it was probably like an anxiety issue, because of all the trouble to get pregnant in the first place. I thought I was going mad. It was hard to get pregnant, but I really wasn’t that emotional, I was just fine in my mind.

Then I went to my GP. She said let’s do a heart EKG… And, my heart was fine. We did all the bloodwork also for thyroid hormones. It turned out my TSH was higher than it should. It was 5.5. Here in Croatia, they say it shouldn’t exceed 5, but my research said it is the best between 1 and 2 to get pregnant, and closest to zero while being on meds for hypothyroidism. They gave me Eutyrox 0,25 mg. After 3 days my symptoms subsided.

Oh, I felt great. By the end, I was on a dosage from 0.50 to 0.75. I was getting a lot of weight, altogether 23kg during pregnancy. But honestly, I wasn`t eating that much. I was on my bike every day for at least 30-45 mins while watching Fools and Horses in the morning… Yea, haha, Del and Rodney kept me spinning… I went for fast walking… but the weight just kept going up…

I gave birth 3 weeks earlier, as I mentioned before on my birthday. My daughter, now a 5-year-old is like me, always anemic, iron on the bottom scale. I read somewhere that babies get the most iron from mum last month. I didn`t have much of my own to give her and she was premature, so it was predetermined for her.

Postpartum I still had to take Eutyrox, a lower dosage, but still there. The doctors said that pregnancy-caused hypothyroidism can go away, but it can stay for life. It’s a 50:50 chance.

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HYPOTHYROIDISM AND IRON DEFICIENCY

Then there was new pregnancy 3 years later. This time I didn’t have to up my dosage, I stayed between 0.25 and 0.50… gained the same weight and everything. But during the last trimester, I started taking Thorne ferrochel ferrous bisglycinate iron.Order here on Iherb

Or this is the one with the same supplement fact, but costs less, and works great for me too: Doctors Best High Absorption Iron With Ferrochell

For the first time in my life took some good iron. Everything that was subscribed to me didn’t last long. So I somehow gave up on taking it. This time feeling bad because my other daughter could end up anemic I did the proper steps. Took this iron for 2 months. Postpartum lab reports were great, My iron was in the mid-range, WoooW! Couldn’t believe it. My research then started with iron deficiency and hypothyroidism.

• PubMed.NCBI – This site generally is great. They are full of research and I learned a lot there. Somehow I have big faith in their studies.
• You have to read this one too…

More for you to read…

 Stopthethyroidmadness.com is one of the great resources for you to read and follow.

“There are all sorts of iron out there: Ferrous Sulfate, Ferrous Glutamate, Ferrous Fumarate, and others. One favorite is Ferrous Bisglycinate because it seems to cause less constipation, plus the milligrams on the bottle equal the amount of elemental iron in the tablets, whereas the others may not.”

If you have an MTHFR mutation like me, this quote is for you…

“Also taking a mineral supplement can assist the absorption, as can B12.  One important B vitamin is Folate (not Folic acid), which promotes red blood cell formation. Adding it to your iron supplementation can be key, some patients have reported. But if you have MTHFR, be careful going too high – it helps increase the breakdown and release of toxins or metals, and you have symptoms of that or excess fatigue.”

“Patients report avoiding swallowing iron at the same time as thyroid pills since the iron will bind to some of the thyroid hormones as they mix in your stomach and bind some thyroid hormones. They might take their T3 or desiccated thyroid one hour before the iron is taken, or several hours later…or try their best to keep them apart somehow”

So, I took iron, B vitamins active form, and kept my Eutyrox in the morning, and iron for the afternoons.

RELATED ARTICLE: Best Methods to Soothe a crying baby

AND MY THYROID GOT BETTER!

Having a baby made me once in a while forget to take my Euthyrox. Then it happened for a couple of days. Considering that I was feeling great didn`t think much of it. Then when she was about 6 months old my blood work was great, my TSH around 2, and I`m not taking the meds properly… So I decided to stop taking it. Took my supplements, some Brazilian nuts (selen in them is good for the thyroid gland)…. and after 3 months ….. TATARAAAA….. my TSH was below 2!!! I`ve never had it under 2, not even with the meds! 

It all has a lot of sense … We need iron to transport oxygen through our body. So it’s normal that someday there comes to a short-circuit somewhere in our body if we are anemic all of our life. That’s how I explained it to myself, it sounds reasonable…

Now my DD2 is almost 2 years old, and I’m still without meds. Just every time I get a period I take iron for 7 days.  It works for me… And I was so scared that I`ll have to take it every day… aghrrrrrr… 

BTW, my second daughter, My Little Lily of the Valey has perfect blood work. Don’t know if it would have been like that anyway. But I believe my supplements helped.

Hope this will help you if you’re in my situation. Feel free to ask me anything, I`ll be more than glad to help in any way that I can.

WE ARE STRONGER THAN WE ALL THINK!

UPDATE 12/2021

For a year and a half, I didn’t take my meds and my lab work was great. Then I had a stressful situation and one day the choking feeling came back. I knew right away that my thyroid has gone mad again. And yes, my TSH was 11. So now I am back on my meds, 37mg, and I am fine. I hope I will manage to get better again.

More for you to read for the postpartum phase

• What can help with postpartum depression?
• What kind of shoes to buy for a baby and a toddler?
• How does motherhood change us?
• The first year of the baby’s life