Pregnancy: get your thyroid tested!
Larissa Melville completed her traineeship in the editorial team of . After studying biology at Ludwig Maximilians University and the Technical University of Munich, she first got to know digital media online at Focus and then decided to learn medical journalism from scratch.
More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.Thyroid hormones are extremely important for the unborn child: If there is an undersupply, the child does not grow properly and it lags behind in its intellectual development and even with a dramatic loss of intelligence. There is also a risk of premature births and miscarriages. Nevertheless, the thyroid values in pregnant women have not yet been examined frequently enough.
Under-functions of the thyroid are common in expectant mothers. "Many women develop a functional disorder for the first time during pregnancy," explains Dagmar Führer, Director of the Clinic for Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases at Essen University Hospital.
For the child, the mother has to produce larger amounts of the thyroid hormones triiodothyronine and thyroxine than usual. Until the fetus can produce the hormone itself around the 16th week, the need increases to up to 150 percent. The need for iodine remains increased throughout pregnancy, as the tiny unborn babies need it for their own hormone production.
Some women are particularly at risk
In principle, any pregnant woman can suffer from hypofunction. But some women are at a particularly high risk of malfunction: if they have a pre-existing thyroid disease, type 1 diabetes or other autoimmune diseases, but also if they are late giving birth or are overweight. The German Society for Endocrinology (DGE) urgently advises such risk candidates to have their thyroid function tested when they are pregnant.
Attack on the thyroid gland
So-called autoimmune thyroiditis - a chronic inflammation of the thyroid gland caused by an autoimmune reaction - is particularly common. In those affected, the immune system attacks the tissue of the thyroid gland and thus damages it. A subfunction then gradually develops. "Worldwide studies show that between two and 17 percent of all women who want to have children have signs of autoimmune thyroiditis and thus a risk of hypothyroidism," explains Führer.
Iodine deficiency as the cause
There is not always a disease behind a thyroid dysfunction. An iodine deficit can also cause hormone deficiency. Endokrinologin Führer recommends that expectant mothers take 150 micrograms of iodine daily in tablet form throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding.
"The importance of the thyroid gland for the health of mother and child is unfortunately underestimated," emphasizes DGE media spokesman Matthias Weber, head of endocrinology at the University of Mainz. The subject of the thyroid gland is largely missing in the maternity record, according to the expert: "Unfortunately, risk-based screening does not take place in Germany, and the intake of iodine tablets is still left to the initiative of the pregnant woman."
Blood tests provide information
To test whether the thyroid is functioning normally, the doctor determines the concentration of the control hormone TSH in the patient's blood. It increases the production of thyroid hormones. If a real, real hormone deficiency is found, it should definitely be compensated with medication. There are also preparations with natural thyroid hormones that are very well tolerated.
Source: Press release of the German Society for Endocrinology from March 9th, 2017: Pregnancy can overwhelm the thyroid - hormone experts recommend a specific function check
