Thyroid health is essential for fertility, conception, and health during pregnancy and postpartum. Suboptimal thyroid health has been linked with difficulty conceiving or maintaining a pregnancy. PMID: 21772747
There are several ways you can assess your thyroid function. One of the best ways, in our opinion, is by how you feel. Thyroid dysfunction usually goes hand in hand with period problems, but there are so many other symptoms that can occur from a suboptimal thyroid or a hyperactive one. (Swipe below to see which symptoms are most common.)
If you suffer from a handful of these, it’s always helpful to do some testing. Blood work is usually the go-to for doctors, and while labs can give us a decent amount of insight, it’s not the only measurement that matters. If you do get a thyroid panel, make sure to ask for ALL of the markers we share in this post, not just TSH. Swipe below for optimal ranges.
We can also examine how the thyroid is functioning based on your basal body temp (BBT). Is your temperature first thing in the morning consistently above 97.2F? If not, your metabolism might be struggling.
That’s where the HTMA comes in, to show us why. Take your Calcium/Potassium Ratio (the Thyroid Ratio) for example: Higher than 6.2 lets us know that your cells are not getting enough thyroid hormone or not utilizing it properly, resulting in a sluggish thyroid.
Keep in mind that you could have perfectly optimal results on your blood work but still be experiencing symptoms, a lower than ideal BBT, or an out-of-whack thyroid ratio on your HTMA. That’s why it’s so important to take a holistic approach to thyroid health and not obsess over lab values. You can take labs into consideration, but you want to zoom out and look at how you actually feel, your BBT, cycle, etc.
This post is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please talk with your provider to figure out what’s best for you.
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