subject: Thyroid Disease And Pregnancy [print this page] Thyroid is a gland which at times faces a disorder leading to production of more or less hormones than the body requires. If the thyroid hormone gets produced in too much quantity, body starts functioning faster than required, this is called Hyperthyroidism. Opposite of this is when thyroid hormone is being produced in lesser quantity than required, body functions slower than the need and we call this as Hypothyroidism. Placed in front of the neck and just below the larynx, thyroid gland looks like a butterfly in shape. Hormones produced by Thyroid Gland are directly connected to metabolism process, development of our brain, Heart, Nervous system, Temperature of our body, Strength of Muscles, health of Bones, Skin Culture, Body weight, Menstrual cycle etc.
Pregnancy and Thyroid care-
Thyroid hormone is not just crucial for a mothers body but also for babys growth and development of childs brain. Even the nervous system of a Child in the womb gets highly affected by Thyroid Hormone. Thyroid hormones production in a Mothers body is what the fetus is totally dependent on for initial three months of pregnancy. Its only after approximately 12 weeks that a childs thyroid gland begins to function properly without being dependent on Mothers gland function. Based on the Iodine intake of the mother, baby gets the iodine quantity which gets used by its Thyroid gland to produce hormones. This controls a lot of processes in the childs body.
During pregnancy women should consume more Iodine than normal, close to 250 mgs a day. Proven by a study that close to 7% of pregnant women dont get adequate intake of iodine in their body, to compensate which they need to ensure consumption of iodized salt and not normal one.
Thyroid gland gets increased in size in a womans body when she is pregnant, but this is not easy to be diagnosed with the help of a laboratory test or report. If you notice an enlargement of thyroid gland in a pregnant woman which is apparently big in size, you should consider it as a symptom of Thyroid disease and should start measures of Thyroid Care. Diagnosing Thyroid disease and ensuring Thyroid care is anyways difficult but it gets more critical during pregnancy because a lot of symptoms are normal way of life when a woman is expecting for example fatigue, weight gain etc.
