Doctors don't know if testing or treatment will do any good
WASHINGTON - Even a slightly underactive thyroid — too mild for symptoms — during pregnancy might trigger premature birth and babies born with lower IQs. But doctors don’t know if treating a symptom-free mother would help.
Now the National Institutes of Health is beginning a major study of pregnant women to find out, a key question amid growing debate about whether more mothers-to-be should get their glands checked.
“It’s all up in the air,” cautions Dr. Catherine Spong, pregnancy chief at the NIH’s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. “We don’t know that treatment is going to improve the outcome.”
Full article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16993749/
