Graves Disease and Pregnancy

[amberg84]

I have had graves disease for 5-6 years now. I take one 10 mg of Methimazole at night time and that is all.  I have been very stable on my medicine for years now. I have also been very lucky to not have any problems with my eyes or other symptoms of that nature. I always get concerned when thinking about pregnancy because I want to make sure it is safe for me to conceive. Also, I know that your thyroid can get worse and better during and after pregnancy. Does this make the risk for my eyes to pertrude heighten? or are the two non-related? One last thing is I heard the risk for your eyes to pertrude is actually really low (mostly only smokers) is this true?

[amberg84]

    Thank you for responding. I knew that I could not take Methmazole during pregnancy and I would need to be switched to a PTU.  I had read before also that the eye problems was around 5% and mostly smokers but I just wanted to double check. I haven't had any eye problems and never knew anyone that did have eye problems with Graves Disease, but it is a scary thing to think about! Also, my doctor told me that eye problems generally occur within 6 months of treatment for Graves so since I have not had eye problems in the 5-6 years that I have had this disease the chance for me to get it, gets less and less likely.

[tm514]

When I was on Methimazole, my doctor told me to be careful not to get pregnant.  If I remember correctly, the drug inhibits the development of the baby's thyroid gland.  I believe she did say PTU could be taken during pregnancy.

While the risk of Graves Eye disease is higher for smokers, not smoking doesn't mean you won't get eye problems.  There are antibodies that cause the eye problems, but they are not the same antibodies that cause they thyroid problems.  However, only about 5% of Graves thyroid patients develop eye disease as well.