LGR Holistic Wellness

There are a few things you need to know about the link between a poorly performing thyroid and infertility if you are a woman. First, there is definitely a correlation. Women experience more routine hormonal fluctuations than men do. This is one of the reasons that women are 5 to 8 times more likely to experience a thyroid disorder or disease than men.

Once a man contributes healthy sperm to the reproductive game, whether or not the woman becomes pregnant is a very involved process. This means in order to conceive; multiple hormones need to be in healthy supply in a woman in order for her to bear a child. One of the many hormonal issues that has been linked to infertility, birth defects, premature births and other reproductive issues is hypothyroidism.

How an Under-Performing Thyroid Can Cause Infertility

Although weighing in at less than a couple of ounces and less than 2 inches wide, your thyroid gland nonetheless plays an important part in the development and growth of your entire body. It influences heart and brain health, helps regulate a healthy metabolism, and influences the performance of your other major glands. It also provides hormones which are needed for a woman to become pregnant.

As the Natural-Fertility-Info.com website reports, “… hypothyroidism is a leading cause of difficulty in achieving and maintaining pregnancy.” WebMD and the Mayo Clinic agree.

This is because, in a woman, one of the main jobs of thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3), the two main hormones produced by your thyroid, is to support fetal growth and development. The maternal thyroid hormone and fetal thyroid hormone continue to drive health in the fetus during pregnancy, and even after birth, a healthy thyroid gland in a baby is vital for growth and development.

If hormone production is lacking, the thyroid can have a negative impact on whether or not a woman can become pregnant. Ovarian dysfunction sometimes accompanies a weak thyroid. If not enough of the correct hormones are released by the thyroid, the result is unhealthy ovaries. When this condition continues, a woman could experience the inability to become pregnant for years, or even decades.

This is why regulating the many complex hormones in a woman’s body is extremely important, especially when a woman is trying to have a baby.

Though the exact mechanisms which cause the hormonal disruption that boosts infertility rates are not fully understood, the link is definitely there. Women with hypothyroidism have much higher incidence rates of infertility, as well as other problems with pregnancy and postpartum health issues with their children.

If you are concerned about possible thyroid problems, ask about the new TSH and T4 testing guidelines issued by the American Thyroid Association. They go further than traditional TSH testing parameters that sometimes miss a hypothyroid condition.

Ask your doctor to test for TSH, total T4, free T4, total T3, and free T3 levels. This will give you a better idea of exactly how your thyroid is working. If you do have an under-active thyroid, there are common medications which can make sure you have plenty of thyroid hormones to support fertility, and a healthy pregnancy.