How do the values change during pregnancy | Thyroid gland values during pregnancy

How do the values change during pregnancy

During pregnancy, the mother’s thyroid gland must also supply the child. The thyroid hormones are very important for a healthy physical and mental development of the growing baby. Therefore, natural conversion processes in a woman’s body lead to a change in the function of the thyroid gland, which can also be made visible by determining the values in the blood.

Especially in the first trimester of pregnancy, pregnancy hormones increase the thyroid gland‘s hormone production. As a result, the regulatory hormone TSH decreases, so that lower values of up to 0.1mU/L can be considered normal in this phase. In the further course of the disease this effect decreases again and the TSH should increase again.

If this is not the case, this could indicate a disease with hyperthyroidism such as Graves’ disease. The thyroid hormones, especially T4 (thyroxine), are usually elevated in the first months of pregnancy and decrease again in the course of the pregnancy. If the thyroid gland values are outside the normal range appropriate for the respective phase of pregnancy, a more precise diagnosis (e.g. by means of further blood value determinations) should be carried out and, if necessary, therapy should be started promptly.

What should the thyroid gland values be if I want to get pregnant?

If there is a desire for pregnancy, optimal thyroid gland values of the mother are very important. On the other hand, thyroid dysfunction is a common cause of a lack of desire to have children, which often goes unnoticed. For this reason, if the desire for a child is not fulfilled, the thyroid gland values should be determined before any further measures are taken.

The most important marker here is TSH. In the best case it should be around 1mU/L. Even if values up to 2.5 are harmless for the mother, women with lower values have a higher chance of becoming pregnant.

However, too low values of less than 0.5mU/L can also be responsible for the fact that a pregnancy does not occur. The other thyroid gland values do not usually have to be determined with a TSH in the normal range.Only in case of deviations they serve for a more precise assessment. An over-function with increased and an under-function with decreased values for the thyroid gland values T3 and T4 should be treated before the beginning of a pregnancy.