Low Progesterone in Early Pregnancy

Hi All

I am confused about the role of progesterone. I had a BT done 14DPO and 16DPO and my prog was 28 nmol/L and then 30 nmol/L. From what I read online, this is barely ovulatory, let alone early pregnancy. I have found tables that ask for the minimum in pregnancy to be 30 nmol/L (equiv to 9 ng/ml) but really desire the levels to be at least at 50 nmol/L by 14DPO. One article said that 30 is ovulatory (at 14DPO), 70 is the average for women who go on to have a miscarriage and 200 is the average for successful pregnancies. Now I am concerned that I am going to have an inevitable miscarriage.

hcg at 14 and 16 DPO was 56 and 190 respectively.

Has anyone had such low levels at 14DPO (not at 7DPO checking for ovulation) and gone on to have a successful birth?

hey Oscar, well my prog at 14 DPO was 55 and now has gone up t0 85 after taking progesterone pessaries. The nurses seem to think i am fine at that level! but i have been concerned about that too...fingers crossed it works out for both of us!!!!:pray:

Thanks heaps. The 80's sound good! I am just really nervous of having a mc. Don't know yet whether to prepare myself for the inevitable or to hope :wall:. All I can do is pray and beg God to let me keep this baby :pray:.

oscar. i was worried about the same thing a couple of weeks ago. i am a bit low too. but "too low" is anything below 8.

also you get prog in little bursts. so you get a batch of it and it goes up, then levels out, then may drop again a little bit before the next burst comes. so depending on how long since the last burst will affect your result.

hang in there lovey.

Myson I saw your thread :hug:. Did you get your prog retested after the 6-7 DPO test? Still thinking of your and your ultrasound! :pray:

didnt get prog done again, but got my first of 4 hcg results today. 23100 which is great for my dates. so looking forward to tomorrow to get result number 2 and check for doubling!

Wahoo lets hope the numbers are 50,000+!!! Mine are doubling even though the prog is low. I guess that is a good thing?!?

Hi Oscar, well my prog has dropped a bit again so i'm a bit worried now too!! have my scan on thurs so hoping to see a hearbeat then!! hows your levels now??

My levels went from 28 to 30, so not a great increase and still not very good. I get another blood test on monday, results tuesday evening when I see the doctor and hopefully get some progesterone pessaries (oh joy!). Praying for a heartbeat!

My levels just dropped to 26 and I'm having an urgent meeting with my Ob / Gyn / Fertility Specialst in the morning at 9 am. Doesn't sound great :(.

Myson what were your levels?

I just wanted to mention that my progesterone levels were not measured during my pregnancy - even with a history of miscarriage - all the doctors I saw in the first tri didn't believe that it made any difference.

I hope all is OK.

how is it all going Oscar?? how was your meeting?

I had an ultrasound, the baby looks perfectly normal for 5w1d, and the FS gave me some progesterone pessaries to boost my prog levels. Praying this works! I am starting to feel a little more confident but will relax in the second trim.

yay, thats great!!! i have my first ultrasound tomorrow...i'm praying for a healthy bub too!!!

Dotty :hug: what time tomorrow? I'll :pray:. My best wishes are with you. Come on bubba!

Do you know your prog levels?

Hi Oscar,

My test results in today from 5 wks and 1 day was Progesterone - 32. My doctor says that these levels are fine, and nothing to worry about. I did question him about it, but he was quite adamant that they were ok. I found a website that was useful
http://www.birth.com.au/Info.asp?class=6620&page=8#prog
according to this website - 9 - 47 is the range for Conception - 12 weeks.

Is it ok to put a link to another site? Please let me know if it's not ok!

:

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Hi Oscar,

My test results in today from 5 wks and 1 day was Progesterone - 32. My doctor says that these levels are fine, and nothing to worry about. I did question him about it, but he was quite adamant that they were ok. I found a website that was useful
http://www.birth.com.au/Info.asp?class=6620&page=8#prog
according to this website - 9 - 47 is the range for Conception - 12 weeks.

Is it ok to put a link to another site? Please let me know if it's not ok!

---

Actually our progesterone is measure in nmol/L, and that site measures in ng/ml. To convert from ng/ml to nmol/L, multiple by 3.18. So really the range in ng/ml is 9-47, but in the units we use in Australia, it needs to be 28.62 - 149.46 nmol/L. So 32 nmol/L is at the lower end of the normal range, but 26 nmol/L just pops outside the range.

HTH

Oh thanks Oscar!

Omg! you are very knowledgable on this! Thanks so much. I am not going to worry dreadfully about the levels until the next test is done on Monday - it's a wait and see approach.

But excitingly, my bleeding has momentarily stopped today....which is the first time in 2 weeks. Hopefully it will not return

Hey Oscar, had my scan yesterday and all looked good, saw a healthy heartbeat which was just so exciting!! i'm still really scared though as my progesterone has dropped from 115 to 70 and thats with 2 prog pessaries a day!! the nurse didnt seem to think it was a worry, but i do!!! i know i should probably trust them but i dont think it should be dropping should it?? any more on your levels?

I just got my 6w1d blood tests back, progesterone went up to 68 after 2 x 200 mg pessaries per day. :woot: stick baby stick!

thats great!!!! congrats!!

Awesome! So glad to here that hun.
xx

Thanks Dusty and Dotty :)

I thought I might ask the question in here....

When is it OK to have sex while using progesterone pessaries? It is one in the morning and one at night, but I am goey all day (sorry TMI). Will hubby absorb it? Will it not absorb if mixed with arousal fluid or semen? Sorry for the way way TMI but I figured someone in here might know.

TBH I am not sure, but I have heard that the most important time for the pessaries to be absorbed is the first hour after insertion. Some clinics recommend lying down for half to an hour after inserting them to allow them to absorb although my clinic didn't. So perhaps it would be best to DTD just before you insert the pessary. This is just a guess though. Why not ring your clinic tomorrow. They will have heard everything and this is a fairly normal question IMO.
I figure they would have to be fairly benign for your partner too otherwise they would tell you abou it, but maybe someone else knows more about it. And even if he finds it a bit strange you are the one that has to put up with the goeyness all day everyday ;)

I used prog pessaries for the first (approx) 28 weeks of pregnancy and used 2 a day both at the same time at night. It was recommended that they are used at night so you are lying down and they also can make people sleepy! You just have to be creative in your DTD. If we sort of planned it (DTD) then I just used the pess just before I went to sleep. I can't see in impacting too much on the absorption. Someone mentioned their dr didn't believe prog had a role to play in maintaining preg which is definately not what my FS believed nor what I read online and from my compounding pharmacist. I am a true believer!

Thanks Dusty and Dierdre. After 12 months of planned dtd I was really looking forward to not having plan it in advance! Oh well the things we go through LOL. My doctor is not a believer in progesterone therapy either, and my FS is uncertain, but from what I read on the net it doesn't ever hurt, and can help!

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Hi All

I am confused about the role of progesterone. I had a BT done 14DPO and 16DPO and my prog was 28 nmol/L and then 30 nmol/L. From what I read online, this is barely ovulatory, let alone early pregnancy. I have found tables that ask for the minimum in pregnancy to be 30 nmol/L (equiv to 9 ng/ml) but really desire the levels to be at least at 50 nmol/L by 14DPO. One article said that 30 is ovulatory (at 14DPO), 70 is the average for women who go on to have a miscarriage and 200 is the average for successful pregnancies. Now I am concerned that I am going to have an inevitable miscarriage.

hcg at 14 and 16 DPO was 56 and 190 respectively.

Has anyone had such low levels at 14DPO (not at 7DPO checking for ovulation) and gone on to have a successful birth?

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Bumping this to see what your outcome was please

DD1 was born May 09 :hug:.