Advice on Progesterone Please

[~Stoked~]

Hi

I saw a OB/GYN today regarding my miscarriages. I have had 4 m/c's spanning over 13 years and two healthy kids in between and I am now pregnant again (5 weeks).

I asked the Dr about Progesterone and whether he thinks that could be a reason for my m/c's. He said that as i have had two healthy children he did not see how i could have low progesterone levels. My progesterone levels have never been tested (that i know of) during a pregnancy as yet. He also said that it is very hard to tell if your levels are actually low or if they are already falling.

So my question is this.. Could i have low progesterone levels in one pregnancy but not another, or is it something will always be low? If i have had two healthy pregnancies could the others have failed due to low progesterone?

He said that they only really use it in IVF cases as there is alot of debate as to whether it actually works. He really felt strongly that it would not help me but said that if i really wanted to try it we could but it would be a little late now as they usually start treatment at 4 weeks.

I am starting to feel like i should have said yes, i would like to try, but he was so adamant that he didn't think it was a good idea so i went with him on it.

Any advice?

Thanks
x

[Maruschke]

Hi

I saw a OB/GYN today regarding my miscarriages. I have had 4 m/c's spanning over 13 years and two healthy kids in between and I am now pregnant again (5 weeks).

I asked the Dr about Progesterone and whether he thinks that could be a reason for my m/c's. He said that as i have had two healthy children he did not see how i could have low progesterone levels. My progesterone levels have never been tested (that i know of) during a pregnancy as yet. He also said that it is very hard to tell if your levels are actually low or if they are already falling.

So my question is this.. Could i have low progesterone levels in one pregnancy but not another, or is it something will always be low? If i have had two healthy pregnancies could the others have failed due to low progesterone?

He said that they only really use it in IVF cases as there is alot of debate as to whether it actually works. He really felt strongly that it would not help me but said that if i really wanted to try it we could but it would be a little late now as they usually start treatment at 4 weeks.

I am starting to feel like i should have said yes, i would like to try, but he was so adamant that he didn't think it was a good idea so i went with him on it.

Any advice?

Thanks
x

I was not an IVF person, and started progesterone pessaries at 5.5 weeks. It worked!

What are your current p4 levels?

My FS was more than happy to support my pregnancy with P4, saying he has seen a lot of success with it. My OBGYN was horrified to find out that I had used progesterone, saying that low progesterone is symptomatic of a pregnancy doomed to fail, not causal. I was heartbroken thinking that all these expensive progesterone pessaries were doing nothing . My GP, FWIW, had ZERO idea about how to handle this and had to send me to a FS for early pregnancy care.

In the end, we had a healthy little girl, but it was so stressful. My P4 didn't hit normal pregnancy levels until about week 8 or 9.

I can understand your concern after so many losses

I hope this helps
xoxo
M

[LionsandBears]

I started on prog suppositories about 6 weeks. My levels weren't very high and I was scared of another m/c. I got my GP to prescribe them as i didnt see an OB.

Ive since spoken to an OB about it who said it probably hadnt made any difference, but we dont know. It didnt do any harm and it gave me peace of mind and my levels increased once i started using it.

Have you had any testing for multiple m/c? There's a number of things you can look at.

GL and lots of sticky vibes.

[onthefly]

My understanding is that sometimes if your ovaries do not function well, you may not release enough progesterone to support the luteal phase of your cycle and/or early pregnancy, even if the embryo is technically viable, so there may be value in progesterone support in that case.
I don't know that there's any harm to adding some in just in case...?

[Maruschke]

My understanding is that sometimes if your ovaries do not function well, you may not release enough progesterone to support the luteal phase of your cycle and/or early pregnancy, even if the embryo is technically viable, so there may be value in progesterone support in that case.
I don't know that there's any harm to adding some in just in case...?

Yes, in cases of true progesterone deficiency it does help. Unfortunately I have found that the medical profession debates like crazy over the treatment of progestrone, it caused me considerable confusion and hurt when two well educated medical professionals disagreed over the best course of action for me. One said it would do nothing, the other said it was the most effective treatment. One said it can cause gential defects in boys, the other said there was no harm in it at all. One said that my progesterone levels had increased to a safe level, the other said that only the blood progesterone increased and not the progesterone produced from the CL as required. It drove me mental. In the end I took the progesterone and was glad I took it.

If you are really worried I think you can buy some progesterone cream over the counter at the Chemist.

I can really understand your concern. Please let us know how you go and don't let the debate get to you, but be prepared for more Doctors to say as your GP did.

[lozzy_mac]

Hey Stoked. Sorry your appointment brought more confusion than answers.
I did a real quick search of the literature. Some evidence to suggest it can help increase success of IVF (not very good evidence though)
But take a look at the abstract for this paper
Elsevier
It suggests that progesterone MIGHT help early on (to support the luteal phase) but after that it might just delay any potential miscarriages. That doesnt sound like fun.

Couldnt see any evidence of it causing any harm, but my guess would be that it would not really help at this stage. Personally, I wouldn't want to be mucking around with my hormones unless there was good evidence to support it. But thats just me. I can totally understand the feeling of just wanting to do SOMETHING to make sure baby sticks!!

It frustrates me how little research there is on it. In fact, there are more papers on progesterone supplementation in cows and sheep then there are for humans! I guess baby cows are worth more money

[crumpet]

like a few of the previous posters im not a IVF patient but i had to use progesterone pessaries for the first 15weeks of my pregnnacy.

im not sure if my levels were low but we used it to keep my cervix and uterus calm until we could get my stitch put in.

if i wasnt using it we would probably have not gotten this far

[~Stoked~]

Thankyou all so much for your replies!

Over the weekend i started spotting. Starting early on saturday morning, with just pink on the TP and some minor AF cramping. It increased to more Brownish when wiping by the afternoon and some BAD AF style cramps. I woke at about 3am on Sunday morning sweating and feeling terrible with an awful headache but no more pain in my tummy. Sunday, i felt ok in the morning with just a tiny bit of spotting and by the arvo i pretty much felt fine and the spotting had all but stopped. I have still got this awful headache since early hours of Sunday though. This morning, the spotting has increased again and is now back to brown but only when i wipe still. I POAS again (as i was sure i must have lost the baby sometime on Saturday when i was in alot of pain) and it is the darkest one yet. Also, on Sunday morning i had a bit of nausea that i thought was MS but who knows..

I'm so confused! I have made an appointment with my GP for this arvo but i don't really know what to do from here. I will request another BHCG but i don't think she'll even check my Progesterone levels as i have asked her before and she said there was no point as she couldn't prescribe progesterone support anyway (is this true??). I feel like something should be done but i feel like no one cares if i lose this baby or not. I'm not confident.. i think it's already lost to be honest.

Maruschke, I have no idea what my P4 levels are or whether they've even been tested!

Tashybabe, I have had some bloodtests for multiple m/c's (couldn't tell you which ones though..) and everything came back normal apparently. I am going to request copies of all my results i think.

Marcellus, that is what i was thinking. What harm could it do?

Lozzy, Thankyou so much for doing some reading for me! Yes it's ridiculous how little research there is.

Crumpet, Thankyou and good on you for getting this far. Not long to go now!