Women, Pregnancy, Osteoporosis and Thyroid Disease

When I first discovered I had a thyroid condition, I was visiting my doctor because I was getting my period too frequently. She asked me a lot of questions. She had me go to an endocrinologist and get blood work done. According to M. Sara Rosenthal, “your periods are heavier and longer, while cycles are often shorter. You may also experience amenorrhea, a lack of menstruation” (Rosenthal 120). Once the thyroid problem is treated, menstrual cycles should go back to normal (Rosenthal 120).

Thyroid conditions play a large part in pregnancy. As stated before, thyroid conditions can occur in the first trimester and after delivery-postpartum thyroiditis. M. Sara Rosenthal also talks about the importance of being tested for thyroid conditions prior to getting pregnant. She talks about a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in August of 1999. The study “looked at the test scores of sixty-two children born to hypothyroid women; these children performed considerably poorer than children born to mothers with normal thyroid function” (Rosenthal 124). The study did not look for other relations to the lower scores, but it found that the children scored lower in attention, language comprehension, and visual motor performance (Rosenthal 124).

The article found on eHealthMD.com states the following reasons getting tested for a thyroid condition before trying to get pregnant. Hypothyroidism can “cause infertility in women because it can prevent the production of eggs. A pregnant woman with hypothyroidism is at higher risk for miscarriage. Women with untreated hypothyroidism near the time of delivery are in danger of developing high blood pressure and premature delivery. Finally, babies born to women with untreated hypothyroidism may not achieve their full intellectual potential” (eHealthMD.com).

The last thing I want to discuss is osteoporosis. Despite popular belief, the link between thyroid disease and osteoporosis has nothing to do with calcitonin, which the thyroid produces. Thyroid hormone is used by our body from head to toe. Too much thyroid hormone in a system makes you vulnerable to bone loss. This is because the hormone will “speed up” or “slow down” bone cells. When you suffer from hyperthyroidism, the osteoclasts (the cells that remove old bone so new bone can be replaced) are over-stimulated. This causes the bone to be removed faster then it can be replaced. Once you go on medication, the risk of developing osteoporosis is gone (Rosenthal 135).

If you have any questions on this topic, or any other topics, please feel free to contact me. There is so much information on women and pregnancy and I can refer you to many books on the subject.

I got my information for this blog from M. Sara Rosenthal’s book The Thyroid Sourcebook and from an article entitled, “Hypothyroidism and Pregnancy” found on www.eHealthMD.com.