Thyroid Medication Does Not Improve Outcomes in Pregnant Women

Levothyroxine, a thyroid medication does not improve pregnancy outcomes in women from China who were undergoing in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer for infertility, reveals a new study.

Women who test positive for thyroid autoantibodies are reported to be at higher risk for miscarriage.

‘Levothyroxine does not improve outcomes in pregnant women who have thyroid autoantibodies.’

Limited studies with conflicting results exist on whether levothyroxine treatment can improve pregnancy outcomes among women who test positive for thyroid autoantibodies but have normal thyroid function.

About 600 women who had normal thyroid function and tested positive for thyroid autoantibodies treated for infertility at a Beijing hospital from September 2012 to March 2017.

Half the women received levothyroxine treatment and half did not. Investigators measured rates of miscarriage, pregnancy and live-births.

This was a randomized clinical trial (RCT), which allows for the strongest inferences to be made about the true effect of an intervention. However, not all RCT results can be replicated in real-world settings because patient characteristics or other variables may differ from those that were studied in the RCT.

The authors were Jie Qiao, M.D., Ph.D., Tianpei Hong, M.D., Ph.D., of the Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, and coauthors.

There was no important differences between groups in the proportion of women who miscarried, became pregnant, or delivered live babies.

This study was a single-center trial. Caution should be used when extending this result to other patient populations.



Source: Eurekalert