Were My Thyroid Pregnancies What I Expected?

Like a lot of people living with a chronic health condition, I had worries and concerns, as well as other expectations, surrounding a pregnancy with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s.

Add to that that I am also on non conventional thyroid medication (Armour Thyroid – NDT) and I certainly had a lot of thoughts and expectations surrounding what it may be like.

Did my expectations come true? Let’s explore them below…

Expectation Number 1: I Would Struggle to Fall Pregnant 

After years of my periods being really heavy, irregular and not even ovulating, I was unsure if I’d even be able to fall pregnant at all, let along ‘easily’. Doctors also warned me that having thyroid disease could impact whether I’d be able to fall and stay pregnant one day.

Beyond this, I was also scared about being classed as a high risk pregnancy, scared about miscarrying and having a healthy baby at all. At times, it really felt all doom and gloom.

The reality:

In 2018, I fell pregnant soon after starting trying to conceive, but lost this pregnancy early on. My worst fears of experiencing a miscarriage unfortunately came true.

So, still desperate for another pregnancy but worried about it happening again, I worked on my fertility and on improving my health an awful lot before attempting to conceive again. For fourteen months after the miscarriage, I put into place my preconception plan and optimised my health, then tried again and luckily fell pregnant quickly again and gave birth to my first son in 2020.

When I was ready to expand my family once more, I implemented the same health supporting practises for a while, then began trying to conceive, fell pregnant quickly soon after and had my second son in 2022.

I am really fortunate to have fallen pregnant quickly each time, I know that. I was shocked each and every time as I had prepared myself for it take much longer.

In terms of being classed as ‘high risk’, I was very briefly given this label in my first son’s pregnancy, due to the type of thyroid medication I was on (Armour Thyroid), but this was taken away soon after, as they determined it to not be a risk factor in the end. Overall, this pregnancy was very straightforward and healthy.

My second son’s pregnancy however was ‘high risk’ but for different, non-thyroid related reasons.

So, my expectation of being classed as high risk due to my thyroid condition and therefore having an awful experience with it, did not come true either.

Expectation Number 2: That It Would Involve a Lot of Arguing About My Thyroid Medication

Looking ahead to one day being pregnant and being on natural desiccated thyroid medication, I assumed that it would be a tricky experience with NHS doctors.

The NHS does not routinely prescribe anything other than Levothyroxine and therefore, is not massively familiar with managing NDT medication. Especially so in pregnant individuals!

I expected to be explaining why I was on this medication at every medical appointment, needing to justify it constantly and continually putting my foot down about not going back onto Levothyroxine in place of it. In general, I thought there would be a big push to take my NDT away and the NHS doctors disagreeing with the private doctor who prescribes it for me. I was worried that after feeling so much pressure to do so, the private doctor may well pull out of prescribing me the NDT.

The reality:

During my first son’s pregnancy, I was referred to an endocrinologist who I saw at 8 weeks pregnant. They really did do their best to convince me to change to Levothyroxine during pregnancy, but after I declined, they discharged me, writing back to the GP to say they wouldn’t be managing me during pregnancy and suggest they leave the managing of my thyroid medication to the private GP who prescribes it.

From that point onwards, no other medical professional I experienced during any of my pregnancies raised it again. That initial appointment with the endocrinologist was stressful but they didn’t push it beyond that discussion.

Expectation Number 3: A Lot of Flare Ups

I was prepared for an increase in thyroid flare days, expecting the pregnancy to exacerbate my Hashimoto’s and thyroid symptoms. I also expected my thyroid levels to move around a lot during pregnancy, as my thyroid condition would become less ‘stable’ due to the effects and demands of pregnancy on thyroid hormone.

The reality:

During my first son’s pregnancy, I did experience some more flares, but not a lot. My thyroid levels were also very stable and easily managed.

However, during the second, I had more flare ups and my thyroid levels were much less stable. My medication needed adjusting multiple times as levels changed dramatically and suddenly. Luckily, I was having thyroid blood tests every month throughout both pregnancies, which meant we caught any changes quickly.

Related Article: Thyroid Flare Ups While Pregnant

Expectation Number 4: Having to Fight for the Full Thyroid Panel

I knew the importance of continuing to have the full thyroid panel (also called a thyroid function test) checked during pregnancy, but that convincing the NHS to check this, and check it often, could prove difficult.

TSH alone doesn’t give us the full, accurate picture of what’s going on and what, if any, changes to our thyroid medication need to be made to support the pregnancy.

The reality:

When I informed my NHS GP of the pregnancy, I made it clear that I would require at the very least TSH, Free T3 and Free T4 to be checked every 4-6 weeks, and thyroid antibodies (thyroid peroxidase and thyroglobulin) if possible too.

He said he’d struggle to get the request for thyroid antibodies to be repeated more than once, but that he would certainly be onboard to check the other three levels every 4-6 weeks, not least because of the type of thyroid medication I was taking, which contained T3 and required us to check Free T3 and Free T4 to manage correct dosing of it.

Had he not agreed to this, I would have budgeted to pay for these extra tests myself from somewhere like Medichecks or LetsGetChecked which I already use for extra testing when working with my private doctor.

Expectation Number 5: Lots of Different Doctors Being Involved

I expected a lot of specialists and consultants to be involved due to taking NDT medication.

The reality:

This didn’t really happen at all. During the first pregnancy, my endocrinologist discharged me after one appointment, as explained above, and the obstetricians that I saw for each pregnancy were also not interested in my thyroid medication. Everyone was happy to leave the management of this with my private GP.

Expectation Number 6: My Acne May Clear Up

Since being around eleven-years-old, I’ve had acne. It clears up before flaring back up and again and I’ve recorded my journey with investigating it over the years on my website previously.

Friends had already told me that their skin improved during pregnancy and so I hoped that I would see this benefit too!

The reality:

It actually did. My skin looked the best it ever did while pregnant. During both pregnancies, it actually got worse during the first trimesters before clearing up completely in the second and third trimesters.

Expectation Number 7: Migraines May Get Worse and I Won’t Be Allowed My Migraine Medication

I have monthly hormonal migraines; meaning I experience a migraine on day one or two of my period, every month.

Experiencing just one a month is nothing like I used to experience, but they’re still debilitating. I used to experience 3-4 days a week of being bed bound with migraines before my thyroid condition was diagnosed and under control.

I suspected that my migraines would get worse when pregnant, due to the hormonal connection and worried about not being able to take sumatriptan, the NHS prescribed migraine medication I have for them.

The reality:

I experienced a few migraines during the first trimester for both pregnancies and that was it. It was certainly much better than I expected. My doctor did advise that I avoid taking sumatriptan for them if possible, because they don’t know whether it could have adverse effects on a pregnancy, but in the end, I never felt I needed to take it anyway.

The migraines did return after giving birth, annoyingly.

I had migraines as my milk supply came in and then once I stopped breastfeeding and my periods returned, the migraines which coincided with the first or second day of my period returned too. So after pregnancy, the frequency of migraines returned to that of before.

Conclusion

Overall, my pregnancies weren’t as difficult as I expected them to be and I wish I could tell the version of myself who worried so much about it five years or so ago, that this was the case. There were definitely some bumps and tricky situations to navigate but I definitely grew in my ability to advocate for myself and my growing baby.

And overall, it was worth it.

Pregnancy differs from person to person and each personal situation can affect a lot of factors, too. My experience may be similar to some peoples’ and wildly different to others.

Feel free to share yours in the comments. 

Related Posts:

5 Tips For a Healthy Thyroid Pregnancy

11 Things I Did to Optimise Conceiving With Hashimoto’s and Hypothyroidism

See also:

You, Me and Hypothyroidism: When Someone You Love Has Hypothyroidism, a book for those who know someone with hypothyroidism. It covers how pregnancy, fertility, parenting, home life and more can all be affected by hypothyroidism.

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. Add it to their bookshelf today.