Sluggish Thyroid Linked to Miscarriage

Screening women for thyroid problems should be part of routine prenatal testing because it could help to reduce miscarriages, since new research has shown that pregnant women with underactive thyroid glands have a four-fold increased risk of miscarriage in the second three months of pregnancy than other women. About 2% of pregnant women suffer from hypothyroidism, which can lead to heart disease, osteoporosis, infertility, impaired IQ in offspring, and many other problems. Researchers performed a study of 9,000 pregnant women and found that: Expectant mothers with elevated levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) had a 3.8% risk of late miscarriage.
Pregnant women without the problem had only a 0.9% miscarriage risk. The risk of miscarriage increased as TSH levels rose.  According to the authors, six out of every 100 late miscarriages could be attributed to a thyroid problem."Because little is known about the cause of late miscarriages, our findings offer a new opportunity to possibly prevent some of these," according to Allan. "Further research may show that early detection and treatment for maternal hypothyroidism is the key to preventing these miscarriages," he said.    Journal of Medical Screening 2008