PREGNANCY IN MYXEDEMA

MYXEDEMA in women is usually associated with altered menstrual function, infertility, or repeated abortion.¹ Parkin and Greene² described the occurrence of pregnancy in one patient with cretinism, in two with juvenile myxedema, and in three with adult myxedema. Their review of the world's literature revealed 10 previously recorded cases of pregnancy in true hypothyroidism, making a total of 16 cases.³ Their methods of diagnosis included determinations of the basal metabolic rate and the serum cholesterol, the clinical appearance, and the response of the patient to thyroid extract. Myxedema cannot always be diagnosed unequivocally by clinical findings plus these laboratory aids. In the past, many, varied disorders of the female reproductive function unfortunately have been attributed to hypothyroidism on the basis of a single basal metabolic rate determination. We agree that the 16 previously reported cases represented true myxedema. One might expect that the increased accuracy of diagnosis