General information, not an individual diagnosis. Ask a healthcare professional if you are unsure about your situation.
After childbirth, autoimmune inflammation of the thyroid can affect its function during the first year. It may go unnoticed: tiredness can be attributed to lack of sleep.
A phase of hyperthyroidism can precede hypothyroidism, which appears during the third to sixth months after childbirth. These phases cannot be reduced to a single symptom.
Thyroid function often returns to normal within a year, but hypothyroidism can persist. Feeling better on its own does not replace the checks your doctor recommends.
The doctor considers your condition together with blood tests. If postpartum thyroiditis is suspected, an anti-TPO antibody test may be requested after specialist advice.
Note the date of childbirth, how symptoms have changed and available results. Ask when thyroid function should be checked again and mention this history before a future pregnancy: recurrence is possible.
An acute thyrotoxic crisis is rare: fever, strong palpitations, agitation, dehydration, weakness and confusion require urgent hospital care. Call 15 or 112 in France. Also call emergency services if palpitations occur with feeling faint with or without loss of consciousness, chest pain, breathing difficulty, profuse sweating, dizziness, severe headache, loss of strength in a limb or facial numbness, or follow an electrical injury. Outside these emergencies, contact your doctor about symptoms and follow-up tests.
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