Low levels of thyroid during pregnancy is not an uncommon thing seeing as it can be caused by iron deficiency, which is a common side effect of pregnancy. That is why women are required to do various blood tests during pregnancy and are advised to eat a certain diet, which most likely consists of lean meat, vegetables, dried fruits, and nuts. Another factor that must be considered is whether or not the mother has a family history of hypothyroidism or any other health problems like anemia (when the body does not have enough healthy red blood cells) and type 1 Diabetes.
The study was conducted by researchers from the VU University Medical Centre in Holland. The subjects were a group (1,200) of children from birth to five-years-old (when they were able to assess their scores for both math and language). It was also required that they monitor the mother's hormone levels when they were 12 weeks pregnant. Children whose mothers had low levels of T4 typically had lower test scores in math. However, the hormone deficiency did not seem to affect the language scores.
And if this wasn't enough to make you want to monitor your levels a little more while pregnant, maybe another study finding will; undiagnosed or untreated hypothyroidism in mothers is associated with IQ changes in infants. The IQ scores had about a four-point difference when studying children with hypothyroid mothers. As of right now it is still undetermined if these problems remain into adulthood, but if the study comes back and concludes that the symptoms do remain, you know who to blame for your inadequate math skills.
