Hi, Christel, I have Graves and MG too (I think I already mentioned this). I came down with Graves 15 years ago after the birth of one of my children too. I think I read that during and after childbirth, your immune system goes into high gear, to protect you from infections. So childbirth is a common trigger of Graves.

Graves is caused by your immune system attacking your thyroid gland, just as MG is caused by your immune system attacking your neuromuscular junctions. It may be that unbalanced female hormones (I assume you mean estrogen and progesterone) make the symptoms worse, but I don't see how they could cause your immune system to create antibodies against your thyroid gland. So please do follow up, and get blood tests, and everything. My neurologist says that thyroid trouble can make MG symptoms much worse--having Graves and MG at the same time requires special management of both.

I have been taking thyroid suppressants on and off for the past 15 years as needed, for flare-ups. I just want to say that I have a wonderful experience with these drugs. They never caused me any side effects, and they work well, and they have put me into remission for years at a time (so I could go off the drugs). My endocrinologist thinks that my current relapse may be my last. It seems to me that since I'm on Imuran to suppress my immune system to treat the MG, that that ought to help the Graves as well, but who knows.

Anyway, welcome again. It's nice to hear from people who understand what I'm dealing with here!

Abby