How can thyroid disease cause infertility?

• Situated in the neck, Thyroid is an essential gland of the body. It produces hormones called T3 and T4 that essentially regulate and govern each and every system of the body, including the reproductive system.
• These thyroid hormones are very important for regular ovulation. If thyroid hormones are haywire, as in either hypo (low) or hyper (high) thyroidism, ovulation gets affected leading to infertility. These women commonly have very irregular menstrual cycles.
• In males, thyroid regulates sperm production and maturation of sperm when they travel through the epididymis.
• Thyroid hormone receptors are also present in the endometrium and it is believed that thyroid hormones play in role in the implantation process as well. This means that normalising your thyroid status is important as far as optimising results of your IVF cycle is concerned.
• After you get pregnancy, thyroid hormones play a key role in the neural and general development of the growing embryo. It is essential to keenly watch your thyroid hormone status while you’re pregnant so that your baby is not affected. Severe hypothyroidism during pregnancy can cause mental retardation in the offspring (cretinism).

Causes of thyroid disorders

Thyroid can start malfunctioning due to a variety of causes. Some of them include :

• Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
• Grave’s disease
• Exposure to certain medicines like lithium
• Exposure to iodide
• Infection or Inflammation of thyroid gland

Select the best treatment for yourself

• Thyroid problems are simple yet important to treat.
• Select an IVF centre where holistic treatment is offered.
• Hypothyroidism can be treated by simple thyroid hormone tablets, whereas Hyperthyroidism needs medication or surgery.
• If your infertility is due to thyroid irregularities, assisted conception can be a useful option for you after normalising your thyroid status. It is important to monitor your thyroid hormones during pregnancy, as pregnancy tends to have an increased requirements of thyroid supplementation for hypothyroidism. For hyperthyroidism in pregnancy, it is important again to consult an experienced Obstetrician because the medicines could be required to be changed.
• We at Janini IVF, the best fertility centre in Delhi, in spite of being endowed with the advanced technology, believe in the principle that fewer medicines used the better. Using optimum stimulation protocols to harvest the best quality eggs will ultimately result in a healthy baby in a healthy mother.