Dr. wants me to take Levothyroxine through whole pregnancy, even with a normal TSH? +...

[Amila]

So I saw my endocrinologist today (who I am not particularly fond of), and even though my TSH and other thyroid levels are all fine, he wants me to take 50 mcg of levothyroxine through my whole pregnancy because of the autoimmune antibodies (which I guess can cause premature delivery and miscarriage?). I most likely had this while pregnant with DS, and everything was fine...but I don't know what to do. I am on the fence. He basically said it is a preventative thing, and there was only one study done on women with normal thyroid but + antibodies taking it. I know thyroid meds are pretty safe in pregnancy, but I don't want to take them unnecessarily. Ahhh. Thoughts?

[MamaMonica]

Moved to Health and Healing where I hope you'll get some more replies

[tanyalynn]

Obviously you'd need to do some more reading, but google for a study about selenium supplementation and reducing thyroid antibody levels. They used selenite, I think, a not-as-great form of selenium, selenomethionine is a better form, but it was only 200mcg of selenium which is a reasonable dose. And if you _are_ low, it's good to supplement, being low in selenium during pregnancy is associated with some health issues in kids, stuff like asthma.

I can't speak to the levo by itself, it _is_ pretty safe, but if you have time to supplement for a while and see if you can get your antibodies down before you're pregnant, well, that seems like it avoids the issue.