Thyroid disease can cause infertility: study

The fetus depends on the mother's thyroid hormones, especially in the first weeks of pregnancy, Gaertner said. If the amount of hormones is insufficient, a miscarriage could result. Gaertner said that many women who had experience such miscarriages did not even notice they were pregnant.

Women with a condition called autoimmune thyroiditis are especially at risk of miscarriage. According to Gaertner, one in six women has a predisposition to the disorder, in which an inflammation of the thyroid gland causes the immune system to produce antibodies that attack and destroy thyroid cells. The result is a deficiency of the thyroid hormones necessary for the normal development of the fetus. Gaertner said that women suffering from this disorder could carry a baby to term if treated with thyroid hormones, however.

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