
Pregnant women with thyroid disorders face an increased risk of preterm birth and other pregnancy-related complications, finds study published in Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
The risk of complications is heightened for both women who have underactive thyroid glands - a condition known as hypothyroidism - and those with overactive thyroid glands, or hyperthyroidism. Up to four percent of all pregnancies involve mothers with thyroid conditions.
"In the United States, at least 80,000 pregnant women each year have thyroid diseases," said the study's lead author, Tuija Mnnist, MD, PhD, of the National Institutes of Health's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). "These women are at increased risk of having serious adverse pregnancy outcomes, including hypertension and preterm birth. They also have a higher rate of labor inductions and other birth interventions."
"Women need appropriate thyroid hormone levels to support a healthy pregnancy, so it is very important to carefully monitor expecting mothers who have thyroid diseases," said one of the study's authors, Pauline Mendola, PhD, of the NIH's NICHD. "We also need more research to identify ways to reduce the risks these women currently face."
The Endocrine Society's clinical practice guidelines for managing thyroid dysfunction during pregnancy and postpartum are available online at http://www.endo-society.org/guidelines/upload/Thyroid-Exec-Summ.pdf.
Other researchers working on the study include: J. Grewal, Y. Xie, Z. Chen, and S.K. Laughon of the NIH's NICHD.
Source: Newswise
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