It's the end of an era for BlackBerry. The company, famous for making cellphones with physical keyboards that were once so popular people nicknamed them Crackberries, has decided to stop making its own devices. BlackBerry said on Wednesday that it will rely on partners to manufacture the phones, which will still have BlackBerry's look and feel.
The thyroid makes two important hormones, triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4). These hormones regulate a person's metabolism, the body's process of using energy. Metabolism affects practically every function of the human body [source: NEMDIS]. The function of the thyroid can affect a woman's ability to ovulate, thus making it harder to get pregnant. When the thyroid gland either produces too much thyroid hormone (hyperthyroidism) or too little (hypothyroidism), it can interrupt a woman's natural menstrual cycle. This in turn affects her ovulation cycle and can impede her ability to get pregnant [source: Mayo Clinic].
Medications to treat hypothyroidism have been found to be safe during pregnancy. Levothyroxine is the treatment of choice for hypothyroidism in pregnancy. Thyroid function should be normalised prior to conception in women with pre-existing thyroid disease. Once pregnancy is confirmed the thyroxine dose should be increased by about 30-50% and subsequent titrations should be guided by thyroid function tests (FT4 and TSH) that should be monitored 4-6 weekly until euthyroidism is achieved.