Hypothyroidism After Pregnancy

hello :)

This may not help at all, but...
I do not have it myself, but my mother and my mother in law have Hyperthyroidism, (the opposite of what you have) and have had it many years. It is completely under contol with synthroid medicine that they take daily, and will have to take the rest of their lives. My mother used to have severe numbness in her arms and legs, and was loosing weight. The synthroid helps take care of those problems. They have to take simi-annual blood tests to see if they need new doses, but other than that, the medicine really helps!!!
~A.

Hello,
I have had hypothyroidism since I was 13 (I am now 42). To me, it's really not a big deal. I am always careful to do just a few things:
1: I take my Synthroid every day at the same time every day.
2: I "listen" to my body. If I begin to feel tired, have weight changes or moodiness, I talk to my doctor. I went through a period of time that one of my doctors wanted to put me on hormones, but it turned out my thyroid dosage just needed to be changed.
3: Have your thyroid level checked often, especially right at first. If you look in the mirror and it looks like you have a big "adams apple", give the dr. a call and have your labwork done.
4: Always insist on the brand name Synthroid. Don't get the generic. I have been told by several doctors that with this particular drug, it is hard to get the exact dosage with the generic. This is one case that the trade name (Synthroid) is actually very inexpensive.

Like the other post mentioned, there are a lot worse conditions out there. This is an easy one. Yes, you will take Synthroid for the rest of you life, but big deal. I count my blessings that I'm not diabetic, I don't have cancer, or any other big, bad illness.
Good luck to you and keep us posted.
God Bless.
S.

Hypothyroidism does not have to be life long. It can be due to a hormonal imbalance in your system, ex.....pregnancy, menopause... I have had hypothyroidism since I was 8 and am now 30, so yes for me it is life long. During my pregnancies I had to see an endocrinologist because my levels of need would change often. I have had problems with losing weight, fatigue, hair loss (especially when pregnant), and skin problems. MOST of the time these can be prevented by diet and exercise.

i went thur the same thing when my daughter was born and it lasted for about a year in a half for me then it seamed to clear up and go back to normal my doctor said it was do to my preg and i should consider my self blessed

I found I had Hypothyroidism while I was trying to get pregnant. This was one of the contributors to our infertility at the time. We will always have this and it will get worse. You will take a daily supplement, like you would a vitamin. I have not found it to be a problem at all. Just another thing. I do have more dry skin and eczema in the winter. I don't think I have anymore of a problem with weight than anyone else. I'm tired because I have 2 healthy active boys and I work out of the home part-time. I don't blame my hypothyroidism for anything. For me its just there. I'm stable in my synthroid dosage .200 mg/day so I get my blood checked every 6 months. It ensures me that I stay in touch with my doctor!! There are alot bigger, more major issues you could have. This one you can treat!!

A.,
Good for your Dr. on checking for this. I have the same disorder and have since I was a teenager but no one bothered to check my levels on a regular basis. I ended up being treated for depression for 10 years when actuallyit was my tyroid. I have to take 2 kinds of thyroid medication now but that is better than the 6 psych meds I was on that made me sleepy and depressed. I thought I had terrible anti and post partum depression come to find out it was just my undertreated tyroid all a long. Good luck and stay on top of it and give your Dr. a big thank you!
J.

Hey,
I was diagnosed with it shortly before I got pregnant with my first child. I also have type 1 diabetes and both are auto-immune disorders (where your body's immune system attacks healthy tissues causing problems, I don't mean AIDS) Another is Celiac Disease. It is common to develop this after pregnancy. It's easy, relatively speaking, to treat, just a small pill a day. Make sure you ask your doctor specifically what time of day you should take your Pill (Levoxyl, Synthroid, Levothyroxine are some common prescriptions) as that is a key part of it working - you're not supposed to take it within 1-3 hours of eating. My phrarmacy put a sticker on the bottle saying to take it before breakfast and my doctor got mad because that was wrong - so be sure to talk to your doctor - they may recommend you see and endocrinologist to manage this. They'll probably do a blood test as often as every 3 months to monitor the dosage, but other than that you should be good. My conditions haven't really prevented me from losing weight - although my doctor told me it would - my diet and exercise levels are what have prevented me from losing weight - but I did Weight Watchers religiously a few years ago and I lost 20 lbs. So don't let anyone tell you you can't - if you want to you can. This isn't anything that should upset your daily life, now that you've gotten it diagnosed - if you don't take the medication it can lead to other problems though. Good Luck with this!

you probably do have hyporthyroidism, but like you said it is part of being a new mom! our bodies are so damn smart, the way they were intended to be. if doctors want to put a label on the symptoms then let them. it does not mean you have to take medication. i am a 27 year old mother of two and am wondering when i will feel better. well when my body works it out. have faith in the system, of your body. god was very wise when he made our glands, blood cells, hair follicles, pores etc, let them work it out before you result to drugs. we have many other symptoms that doctors can label but we dont treat right?

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism when I was about 16 yrs old. It runs in my family, my dad has this also. I had my second child on July 3rd of 2006, and went for my 6wk check up and brought up my iron pills, I wasn't sure if I still needed to take them or not (became anemic while pregnent at 7 months), the Dr drew some blood and saw that my iron was fine but I was on the low level of HYPERthryoidism. So now they are reversing my medicine that I was on for hypo. I have had some of the same symptoms you are getting. Mostly the inabitliy to keep weight off, but theres not too much you can do is what I was told. Once your on the medication some of those symptoms should stop. All I know now is that I can still eat like I"m pregnant but at the same time I am not that hungry that much..( I hope that makes sense) Just try to watch what you eat and try walking or running excersises. I hope I was some help to you.

I also have hypothyroidism. I found out when my daughter was 2. I was told i got it from being pregnant. Its a hard thing to live with, because many people dont understand. Have they put you on medication yet? Im on synthroid, which is what is normally given. It corrected my thyroid, but i still cant lose weight. I had to be put on additional medication for high cholesterol. Hypothyroidism is a life long thing, you will always be on medication.

Hi A.,
I'm new around here--just found this site--so hello. But absolutely, this happened to me also. It began with fatigue so bad that I couldn't get out of bed when my son was about one. Thyroid problems run in my family so I thought that was probably it. My midwife only had my TSH tested, which I later learned was a mistake. When my son was a little over 2, I re-doubled my efforts to lose weight, thinking that I just wasn't trying hard enough or didn't have my diet all worked out. Then, I got constipation. It was so bad that I did one full week of Miralax, was constantly supplementing fiber into my already extremely healthy diet. In the meantime, I also had had a round of idiopathic frozen shoulder (my ex-doctor failed to diagnose it correctly), which is fairly common among those with thyroid conditions, from what I've read. I switched doctors; she did the full panel but didn't need to because even my TSH was abnormal. My doctor has me on Armour Thyroid and I've had blood tests every three months or so, getting the dose tweaked. Since then, I've lost forty five pounds and am back to having some minor problems with constipation and fatigue again, but I think my meds just need to be tweaked a tiny tiny bit again. I'm on a fairly low dosage (even if it's upped a tiny bit), and am wondering if this is one of those things that will work themselves out. I certainly hope so.

Hope everything is working out well for you!

Hi A.!
I had the same thing after having my son two years ago. But mine was a mix of hypo- and hyperthyroidism. I had the hair loss (which I thought was normal for almost everybody after they have a baby), EXTREME fatigue (again, normal), and skin problems (I had dry patches of skin on my shins). But I also had weight loss (I felt like I was melting. And I thought it was because I was breastfeeding), nervousness (I felt like I couldn't calm myself down when I became nervous or anxious), a goiter (an enlargement of the thyroid gland in your neck) and an inability to cool myself down (I was hot all summer no matter how much I turned the AC down). I found all this out when my son was about 6 months old. I was prescribed Synthroid and I feel 100% better. I feel so much more normal than I did before. I take the generic form of Synthroid(Levothyroxine) which is just as good as name brand. Don't let anyone tell you generic is different. The only difference is the name, THAT'S IT. You can ask your doctor if you're concerned. I also had to have blood tests done to see where my thyroid levels were. Which are now back to normal thanks to medication. My OB/GYN took care of my problem, but then referred me to internal medicine physician (who specializes in endocrinology) who now handles all care related to my hyperthyroidism. I've been on the medication for 18 months now and I recently found out that I won't have to take it any longer. In the beginning they told me that I might have to take it for the rest of my life. But now I know this won't be the case. when doing research, I found out all this information that scared the bejesus out of me (surgey, radiation), but my doctor told me that that wouldn't be necessary and it probably won't be for you either. That's mostly for extreme cases. There's a lot of good info on the web also. I found some good info on WebMD.com. I hope this was helpful for you and good luck!!

Hi A.

I have had hypothyroidism since birth. I am now 39 and I can tell you that it is really hard to live with sometimes. I did ok with my weight until I hit my 30's. Then I ahve been way over weight since I had my daugher 2 years ago.
You can lose weight, but you really have to put work at it. I hope for you that it goes way. Like I said I have lived with this all my life and become an expert on the topic.
The best thing is now they test all babies for this. I was one of the lucky babies in the 60's that they found mine before the permanent dameage was done.
If you want to know about any other problems you might face with this disease I can help you out.

Take Care
S.