Age and thyroid dysfunction as risk factors for spontaneous early pregnancy loss and the need for thyroid function screening in women of reproductive period

Age is a predictive risk factor for spontaneous early pregnancy loss, especially in mothers over 35 years of age. The risk of functional thyroid diseases is 8 to 9 times higher in women than in men and increases in direct proportion to the woman's age, with a peak between 30 and 50 years. Thyroid dysfunction has been shown to be a predictive factor for spontaneous early pregnancy loss, and attitudes toward screening thyroid function preconception or in very early pregnancy are contradictory. Objective: The aim of this paper is to change the attitudes towards screening of thyroid function in women during reproductive period. Methods: In this paper, 50 subjects with a history of spontaneous early pregnancy loss were examined. Among them, subjects who had one or more successful pregnancies (19) in a previous period of their lives that ended with term delivery, but at another period of their lives at the time of entry into the study were faced with a diagnosis of spontaneous abortion in early pregnancy were examined. The first control was performed upon entry into the study and included anamnestic data such as age and other data of the subjects, ultrasound evaluation and confirmation of the diagnosis of spontaneous abortion and the gestational week of the same. The data were entered into a questionnaire, in order of importance of those that were considered necessary in the study. Results: The average age of women when they had their first successful birth was 27.7±5.3 years, ranging from 18 to 36 years. The average age of the same women when they had a spontaneous abortion in the next period of their life was 33.2±5.1 years, ranging from 21 to 44 years. Among the respondents, a significant moderately strong positive correlation was registered between the age of the first live-born child and the age when she had a spontaneous abortion for p<.05 (R=0.765018) Conclusion: In addition to age being a predictive risk factor for miscarriage, thyroid dysfunction also increases the risk of miscarriage. This may be due to unrecognized condition in previous pregnancies, advanced age at current pregnancy with miscarriage, and the incidence of thyroid dysfunction increases with age. Screening for thyroid function preconceptionally, especially in women over 30 years of age, may reduce the risk of miscarriage due to unrecognized or inadequately treated thyroid dysfunction. Keywords: risk factor, miscarriage, age, thyroid dysfunction.