The thyroid gland plays a critical role in regulating hormones that play a crucial role in fertility and pregnancy. Suboptimal thyroid function can impair fertilisation and implantation, increase risk of miscarriage, increase the risk of pregnancy complications and a whole host of post partum woes. Therefore, it is essential to have optimal thyroid function to improve the chances of conception and healthy pregnancy outcomes for our patients. 

But how do we best identify optimal thyroid function? What can we do for our patients who need support to bring their thyroid into a better range? Which blood tests are important for us to know and understand? And for our patients with thyroid conditions that are beyond the medical reference ranges - how are we best placed to support their health, and their fertility and pregnancy outcomes?

In this presentation, Clare will carefully guide us through these topics, and tease out the nuances of these topics and how it plays out in clinic. Specifically, Clare will help us to understand the physiology and pathophysiology of the thyroid, the medically published clinical guidelines and the latest research. We will also review the most common natural medicine strategies that our patients are educated with via YouTube university, TikTok videos and instagram reels, and explore these treatments, remedies and recommendations through a Chinese medicine lens. Finally, we will balance this with a highly practical discussion of the challenges that so often arise for our patients as they attempt to navigate and reconcile the vast and often conflicting information they have access to.