When the desired child fails to materialize, many couples undertake a veritable odyssey of treatment. It is often overlooked that the cause of infertility may not lie in the abdomen, but in the neck area: in a disorder of the thyroid gland. Professor Gerhard Hintze, Bad Oldesloe, pointed out this connection for the Thyroid Forum: “Both an overactive and an underactive thyroid gland can have a lasting effect on conception. Affected women would become pregnant less often and could be affected more frequently by miscarriages, the expert continued. If the condition is detected and treated, the difficulties could be largely avoided. Early diagnosis of thyroid disorders sometimes eliminates the need for expensive procedures to treat involuntary childlessness. Given limited health insurance benefits in this area, it is therefore also worthwhile for those affected to think about the thyroid gland.
Thyroid hormones
With its hormones, the thyroid gland controls vital processes throughout the body, including fertility and reproduction. Thyroid and sex hormones, such as estrogen, are closely related and influence each other. If the thyroid hormones are out of balance, the female hormones also go crazy: ovulation and menstruation can no longer occur normally.
If a woman then wants to become pregnant, the chances of this happening are poor. Above all, an underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism) can prevent a woman from having the child she has longed for. Hyperthyroidism also interferes with conception, but not quite as frequently. On the other hand, hyperthyroidism has a more dramatic effect on the course of pregnancy if it remains untreated: Miscarriages, premature births or malformations of the child can occur here.
Furthermore, the body’s own defenses can play tricks on fertility: In about six to ten percent of all women, the immune system produces antibodies against the thyroid gland. This so-called autoimmune disease does not always have to be apparent at first glance. However, women in whom such thyroid antibodies are found in the blood are twice as likely to suffer a miscarriage as other women. In artificial insemination (in vitro fertilization), the chances of pregnancy success are also significantly lower.
Thyroid screenings
Thyroid dysfunction can often only be detected by specific examination. Thus, many affected women who want to become pregnant are not yet aware of the fertility blockage caused by their thyroid gland. Therefore, it is important for all women with an unfulfilled desire to have children or previous miscarriages: the thyroid function should definitely be checked by the doctor with a blood test.
This involves measuring certain thyroid hormones, especially the so-called TSH, as well as thyroid antibodies. Women who already have another autoimmune disorder or who have family members with the disease should also be tested. Autoimmune diseases also include, for example, a certain form of diabetes (diabetes mellitus type I). The tests involve little effort and can quickly bring to light a possible cause of childlessness.
So before starting complex and expensive gynecological treatments, the thyroid gland should in any case be well examined and a malfunction treated if necessary. As a rule, this is well possible, so that nothing then stands in the way of a pregnancy.
