Lindsay takes us on their journey from not being able to conceive to the decision to become a foster parent. This time her story about an underactive thyroid and pregnancy. Following on from her story about the recurring disappointments and coping with the disappointment of a negative pregnancy test.
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Research has shown that an underactive thyroid and pregnancy are closely linked. An underactive thyroid makes it less easy for women to get pregnant, but also increases the risk of miscarriage.
And there I am anyway. I am extremely nervous and pretend to read a book while sitting in the doctor's waiting room. Next to me is a woman with a small baby on her lap. Swallow, this is pushing me back to the facts of why I'm here. We are now a year further and still no baby for us. We have already spent a fortune on pregnancy and ovulation tests. We tried to watch our diet and last month I even walked with a moonstone in my pocket because it would bring good luck. We tried everything, but now I had really taken the step to the doctor.
Crying, I told my story and that alone was a relief. Blood tests were standard, but she didn't expect anything special to come out of that. It was just a formality before she could send us to the gynaecologist. She would call us the next day with all the results.
So a day later I got that phone call, but to my surprise they had indeed found something different. My thyroid was working too slow. Symptoms include fatigue, dry skin and weight gain. “Gosh, that might explain the 30 (!) kg I gained in a few years.” I said. Although I also knew that those visits to McDonald's were not really healthy either?.
But it could also be the reason why a pregnancy did not occur. And even if If I did get pregnant, there was an increased risk of miscarriage. So we now got the message that we were not allowed to get pregnant until we got my thyroid levels back up with the help of medication. Of course that felt very double to us.
This news was the moment when we decided to tell more people around us about our wish to have children and how much effort we had to make it come true. This is partly due to my underactive thyroid. We desperately needed their support now. Most of the time we got that support, but some (well-intentioned) comments actually hurt us. “You don't have to worry about it so much, then it will work,” I think is de note that is an absolute 'no go' for couples who don't get pregnant easily. It gave me the feeling that people thought it was our own fault if they said this to us.
In addition to the blood test, I also got a nice jar to take home. A present for Bert?. He wasn't too happy about it, but he knew what he had to do:that jar had to be filled! I can imagine that it is extra difficult for a man, such investigations. Because we lived close to the hospital, we were allowed to take the sample ourselves where it could be examined. It had to stay at body temperature and I read on the internet that you could keep it under your armpit. There we went, Bert would drive and I would hold that jar under my arm. Once we arrived at the hospital we had to take the elevator down and we agreed that I would give it back to Bert at that moment so that he could take it to the lab himself. What do you think? Elevator overcrowded! Hihi, we hadn't thought of that beforehand. All in all, we succeeded in that adventure, and the potty reached its destination.
But now the hardest part:waiting for the results again. We were both scared. Afraid of a bad result and the thought that we really had to go further with this at the gynaecologist already made me anxious…
