Thyroid disease and pregnancy

Thyroid diseas is one of the most frequent endocrine disease for women in reproductive age and may be related to infertility and adverse pregnancy outcome. This analysis aims to evaluate how thyroid disease can influence pregnancy course, how it is related to the development of complications of pregnancy and finally its influence on fetal growth and maturation. We evaluated 106 pregnancy records, 98 of them pertaining to hypothyroid cases and 8 to hyperthyroid cases. Result show that in the case of hypothyroidism a correct pharmacological treatment, which keeps thyroid disease under strict control and allows to reach a normal outcome; on the other hand in the case of hyperthyroidism, the teratogenic risk associated to treatment with thionamides, implies a greater caution in the management during pregnancy, with consequent difficult control of the disease and an increased occurrence of pre-term births.