Chapter 6 Micronutrients - Iodine recommendation if trying to conceive?

[Lydia L]

Hi,

I switched to a primarily plant-based diet a few years ago (about half the week I eat only plant-based and the other half I eat animal products freely). My period became highly irregular, and after reading this book regarding micronutrients vegetarians may lack, I started taking 225mcg of Iodine, plus daily multivitamins containing 40mcg of Iodine (so total 270mcg of Iodine) and 2.2mg of Zinc. My period came back. After almost two years of normal periods, I started having acne breakouts but still with normal periods. My non-naturopathic ob/gyn advised me to stop taking the 225mcg of Iodine because too much iodine is not good for you, and start taking 15mg of Zinc. My blood tests at the time, which check for thyroid disease among other diseases, were completely normal (however, when I took the blood tests, I was still taking 270mcg of Iodine supplements a day at the time, so I don't know if this affected the normal-looking test results)... my progesterone reading was low but my doctor was not concerned about it.
After I stopped taking the 225mcg of Iodine (but still taking the daily multivitamin which has 40mcg of iodine) and started the 15mg of Zinc as my doctor advised, my acne got better but my period became irregular - the normal period still happens on the right timeline (i.e. 28 days between when flow is heaviest and it is bright red), but on top of this normal period I started having an extra week of pale brown spotting / pale brown flow leading up to the normal period (basically am having some sort of flow >2 weeks of the month).

My two questions are - 1) What's causing this irregular flow/continuous spotting for a whole week leading up to the normal period, and is it right to think the culprit is the fact that I stopped the 225mcg of iodine, or is it because I am missing other micronutrients (maybe magnesium)?

2) More importantly, if more iodine would solve the problem, is it safe to keep taking this much Iodine forever (270mcg/day), especially if I want to conceive? I read in the Period Repair Manual that some practitioners don't recommend above 225mcg for pregnant women... what is your guidance on the iodine limit for women trying to become pregnant?

Thank you!!

[Lara]

There are lots of potential reasons for spotting and I doubt that taking (or stopping) that small amount of iodine would be the cause. First, do you know if you're ovulating regularly? Remembering that it's possible to bleed without having ovulated.

In answer to your question about iodine, 270 mcg is safe for pregnancy. In fact, that's the dose in a lot of the good prenatal supplements.

To address breast pain and other symptoms, I sometimes prescribe up to 3000 mcg to non-pregnant women. The safety of that really depends on whether or not you test positive for thyroid antibodies or anti-TPO antibodies. See my blog post about the use and safety of iodine.