I wrote before on Thyroid Health and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. If you are interested in starting with an overview, check out that article here. In this article we are going to look at the thyroid in light of fertility and pregnancy more specifically with PCOS.
There is a good amount of debate over optimal thyroid levels in PCOS while trying to conceive. It can be a difficult subject to wrap your arms around and even more difficult to articulate your concerns when advocating for comprehensive care with your physician.
First of all, PCOS is what we call a diagnosis of exclusion meaning: in order to obtain a PCOS diagnosis you have to meet certain criteria but, you also need to have other disease states ruled out.
This is because there can be other explanations for a lack of menstrual cycle, anovulation and high levels of androgens. One of the conditions that should be ruled out is hypothyroidism. (1)
Before we dive into the science, let's just review some basics and some statistics around thyroid health and PCOS.