TABLET trial - anyone taken part?

Paola_M

It's a long post but this is mostly what I've figured out so far. I'm in a similar situation, having been offered to take part in the trial. My antibodies are 1300 and my TSH dropped from 3.8 to 2.8 in the last 1 month - maybe it just fluctuates randomly or maybe it's because the first time I was tested was shortly after my second miscarriage... who knows?..

Anyway, the lady from TABLET I spoke with stressed that regardless of whether I decide to take part in the trial or not, my thyroid hormones will still need to be monitored with the same frequency as they would be during the trial with any future pregnancy (particular weeks, in every trimester I think, I can see if it's in the papers she gave me), as well as 6 weeks after delivery because women with the TPO antibodies are at a much higher risk of developing postpartum hypothyroidism. Also, the thyroid function needs to be monitored annually or biannually for the rest of my life. She has also sent this info to my GP and that was before I even told her it runs in my family, so if you haven't been told the same, you might want to look into it.

She also said that there is sound data that makes them believe that women with high antibodies are twice as likely to miscarry and while they don't know how it works, they believe that taking the thyroxine decreases the risk back to normal.

TPO antibodies are linked with Hashimoto's hypothyroidism, there is a genetic link in many cases - my mother has it and so did my grandmother, I'm likely to develop it. It's more common for women than for men. In fact the first time I heard I needed to look into it was from my mother's doctor who said it often runs in families. As far as I understand the antibodies aren't produced by the thyroid, but the immune system gets triggered for some reason, apparently high iodine intake is common one, and starts attacking it until it destroys it. I got this book and I'm reading it at the moment: Hashimoto's Thyroiditis: Lifestyle Interventions for Finding and Treating the Root Cause, it's available on Amazon. It provides a lot of information about what might trigger it and how to deal with it. It's not about fertility but it might answer your question as to how the antibodies might affect your future health and possibly what to be careful about.

I find it hard to decide whether I want to take part in the trial or to try and find a doctor to give me the thyroxine anyway and monitor my hormone levels - I'm inclined to speak to an endocrinologist first because the internet is telling me that there have been other studies that show taking low doses of the hormone may stop the destruction of the thyroid. Obviously this is not common practice because you normally only get treatment after you become officially hypothyroid.

Counting_Pennies_2

Only you know if you want to try for another baby. I would not push yourself into a trial unless you are sure it is right for you.


I just wanted to let you know that I had antibodies in my second pregnancy and I could in theory have gone to full term, but my consultant gave me a C-section at 36 weeks to be on the safe side.


Just because you have antibodies does not mean you can't go to full term or as close as and have a safe baby.


All I was told was each subsequent pregnancy will carry a slightly higher risk of prematurity. As this was my second child and I had a bad delivery (complications with me and not baby) I was advised not to have any other babies.


When you have antibodies you should be assigned a consultant and have weekly blood tests and if the antibody reading start to rise you should be able to have regular scans to see if the baby needs a blood transfusion in the womb or if it is safe to continue.


The weekly blood tests and scans were reassuring and nerve wracking each time.


hth

dizziblonde

I managed to jump the NHS system and get into the miscarriage monitoring system after two losses - both in a very short space of time and they just happened to have space on the consultant's list at the time the second loss happened so referred me on there.

One thing she said was that often they've found that just knowing they're in the system and being monitored more closely can be the tipping point for some women to get them to carry a pregnancy to term (we'll ignore the fact I deliver early on this one)... so would the trial mean more monitoring and potentially more reassurance in that case? I know that once I was in the system, getting first trimester scans (mainly being done since the losses were at similar timepoints and so they wanted to see what was going on) - we had two pretty much back-to-back successful pregnancies.