This book has been sat in my to-read list since I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) and Hashimoto’s three years ago now, but it wasn’t until recently that I decided to give it a read. 
Not necessarily in my list to read because I was wanting to start a family any time soon, but rather because being a thyroid advocate means sucking up as much knowledge on the topic as possible in order to help others. And this includes pregnant thyroid patients or those wanting to fall pregnant.
I’ll reference back to this book and what I’ve learned from it throughout my blog posts.
Your Healthy Pregnancy with Thyroid Disease is written by two thyroid patient advocates, Mary Shomon and Dana Trentini. For Mary, this wasn’t her first book (she’s published quite a few already), however, it is Dana’s first.
Following the loss of her own baby in 2009, Dana set out on a mission to prevent other women and unborn children experiencing the same horror that she did, due to her inadequately treated hypothyroidism. As well as her blog, she joined forces with Mary Shomon to create this guide on maximising your chances for conceiving, carrying a healthy baby and then recovering from pregnancy, as smoothly as possible.
Related Article: 9 Ways I Supported My Thyroid Health Postpartum
Starting the book, I did find it quite daunting at how much information seem to be presented in it (300 pages and in a small font), immediately thinking ‘gosh, this is going to be a lot to take in for those who are just so desperate to start a family’, but what I actually found around half way through, is that a lot of the information is repeated, several times, too.
Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you live with thyroid brain fog or tend to read at the end of the day (like me, in bed with eyes drooping), it’s no harm for crucial information to be reiterated, but I did start skimming towards the end, when the same paragraphs were almost copied and pasted again, later on in the book.
I was also taking notes as I went along, about anything particularly crucial i.e. my ‘take aways’ from the book. For example, these included ensuring your thyroid levels are optimal before conceiving, upping your thyroid medication dosage as soon as you find out you’re pregnant (on guidance of your doctor) and taking pregnancy tests regularly so that you know as soon as you’re pregnant. So perhaps this added to my feeling as if parts were a little repetitive.
I think on the whole though, it is a very informative book. It’s not just for those who are already diagnosed with a thyroid condition, but those who are having trouble conceiving or carrying a baby to full term, and are needing answers. This book does present the possibility that for many struggling with fertility, they could have a thyroid problem.
The book starts with a very personal introduction by Dana, written in a unique style, mixing her experience of a miscarriage with what she wish she’d have known earlier. It gets straight to the point about the guilt she has experienced over losing her child due to hypothyroidism, how medical professionals let her down and how they’re putting so many other women and unborn children at risk, too.
The book is split in to a few parts, with parts one and two looking at what thyroid disease is and how it’s treated, including where many patients are left unwell and inadequately treated, and it really covers a lot of basic information in an easy to understand manner.
Part three is where I felt that I started to learn new information, like what both sexes can be doing for a healthy pregnancy with thyroid disease.
Covering how sex hormones, cycles, ovulation and fertile days work and how sex hormone issues and irregular cycles (among other things) can be getting in the way of you falling pregnant, it dives straight in. It is at this part of the book where I begun highlighting bits of text on the actual pages, so that I could find certain useful parts later on.
It also covers the role of the thyroid gland in pregnancy, including supporting the foetus and how demands for thyroid hormone change throughout pregnancy. This is why so many women with thyroid disease need close monitoring and medication dosage adjustments.
One thing that I found particularly interesting and something I hadn’t considered before, was that they recommend a pre-conception plan. A pre-conception plan is where you plan for your pregnancy around six months before trying to fall pregnant, getting all your ducks in a row and your health to optimal heights, ensuring you are in the best health to begin your pregnancy. I discuss what I did for my pregnancies here.
They discuss supplements and vitamins that can help to support your body, as well as other lifestyle changes such as giving up smoking (an obvious one), cutting alcohol, implementing a better sleep routine, a better diet and stress management. I really can’t do justice about just how much ground is covered in this book. There’s also sex hormone imbalances, adrenal issues and low vitamin levels that they suggest looking in to and correcting before trying to conceive.
For those not familiar with thyroid medication options, these are also covered along with why some may work better for some patients than others.
Whether it’s hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism that you have, there is a dedicated chapter for each, addressing symptoms, test levels, treatment, monitoring and other FAQ’s for each condition. There’s also a chapter on thyroiditis, goitres, nodules and thyroid cancer during pregnancy which is incredibly useful, as they’re topics I haven’t seen discussed elsewhere, in relation to pregnancy.
As well as guiding you through post-conception, conception and pregnancy, there’s also information regarding how to look after yourself post-childbirth and the extra struggles that can present with thyroid patients. Post-childbirth is an extra challenging time for all, but can be more so to those of us with thyroid conditions. As well as physical things to consider, mental health is also discussed which I’m sure will help many new mothers feel reassured that they are not alone with their mental health struggled post-delivery.
In Part three, they essentially sum up everything that you’ve read up until this point, in the first 150 pages, in a quicker to read and bullet point fashion. You can use it to tick your way through becoming prepared to have a healthy thyroid pregnancy.
Because I’d been noting all of these ‘action points’ down as I read the book, I actually found that I’d written all of them down already! So really, they’d done what my super-organised self had begun to do anyway. It’s a good recap and makes the whole process a lot less daunting.
Towards the end of the book, a chapter on reasons why you may still be struggling to conceive or have a healthy pregnancy are reiterated, along with fertility treatment options, should you have optimised your endocrine health and still have no success.
Throughout the book, although both Mary and Dana are not medical professionals themselves, they do refer to research and studies for their information as well as feature regular quotes and information from various doctors and medical professionals. Case studies are also included, from other thyroid patients’ experiences as well as Dana and Mary themselves. You’ll feel very informed after reading this book.
You can get a copy of this book from Amazon.
Have you read this book?
You can click on the hyperlinks in the above post to learn more and see references to information given.
Related Articles:
11 Things I Did to Optimise Conceiving With Hashimoto’s and Hypothyroidism
The Things I Did to Have a Healthy Pregnancy With Hashimoto’s and Hypothyroidism
A Book for Our Children:
Thyroid Superhero: A Kid’s Guide To Understanding Their Grown-up’s Hypothyroidism, which helps children to understand their caregiver’s thyroid medication, flare days, symptoms and much more.
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