The Thyroid Hormone Breakthrough by Mary J. Shomon

Author:Mary J. Shomon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

Thyroid Autoimmunity Testing

While some practitioners recommend systematic screening of all infertile women for thyroid dysfunction, including thyroid autoimmunity, many doctors feel these antibody tests are unnecessary, because they aren’t aware of the research linking thyroid antibodies to miscarriage. However, there is a strong argument for testing.

Among women with normal thyroid function, and no history of pregnancy loss, those who tested positive for thyroid antibodies during the first trimester of pregnancy had a 17 percent miscarriage rate—a level that is twice the 8 percent rate of women without thyroid antibodies.

In some women, the antibodies actually become elevated long before any thyroid symptoms appear, or before they affect the thyroid enough to cause functional changes that are seen in standard blood tests. So there are millions of women with evidence of autoimmune thyroid disease—a factor that can interfere with fertility and pregnancy—who don’t even know it.

Some experts theorize that thyroid autoimmunity is evidence of some underlying immune dysfunction that may make you more likely to reject a developing fetus. Another theory is that even if thyroid levels are supposedly normal, the autoimmunity still causes subtle thyroid deficiencies or makes you less able to meet the thyroid-related demands of pregnancy.

There are numerous studies indicating a relationship between thyroid irregularities, including antithyroid antibodies, infertility, and recurrent miscarriages. According to scientists from the Foundation for Blood Research in Scarborough, Maine, miscarriages could be reduced if doctors included a thyroid screen and antibody profile as part of the regular battery of prenatal tests. In an article in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers found that the presence of antithyroid antibodies increases the risk of miscarriage. One study found that as many as 31 percent of women experiencing recurrent miscarriages were positive for various thyroid antibodies. And a study detailed in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that risk of miscarriage can be twice as high for women who have antithyroid antibodies.

Researchers have shown that antithyroid antibodies can also make in vitro fertilization less successful. According to fertility expert Dr. Gregory Sher,

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