Pregnancy Info HOME

Just thought I would keep all those tuned in to the wonderful world of "progesterone stress," updated. After a week on prometrium my levels have risen from 15.5 to 31.9. What good news! I will have an ultra sound on Thrusday, and hopefully see good things. I am only 6 weeks along as of today. Best wishes to all. I will keep you all posted, as I hope that you do the same.

I am 5 weeks and 3 days. My progesterone level was 6.2 at 4 wks 6 days with HCG of 975. 3 days later, proges went down to 4 and HCG up to 1500. Doc will repeat blood work tomorrow but feels pretty strongly that I will miscarry. I am 35 and this is my first pregnancy and I am scared to death. I am still having preg symptoms and in fact, they have intesified. Doc does not want to prescrib prog supplement as he feels it will delay miscarry...any suggestions

See my above posts re: miscarrying while on progesterone supplements. If you are on supplements you must have an ultrasound every two weeks or even one week to make sure you do not suffer a missed miscarriage that goes on for eternity, like till week 14....

Bridget, I think that's not only ridiculous, but also very irresponsible of your doctor. I'd find a new doctor if I were you, but you probably don't have time. Demand the progesterone and don't take "NO" for an answer. It may not help, but it certainly can't hurt.

Hi - I am 14 weeks pregnant after 2 miscarriages, and am almost 37 years old. My advice to all - keep requesting blood tests if you are concerned. I had a progesterone level of 14.5 at 5 weeks...I always had a "feeling" that I had a problem with progesterone...so I asked to be on prog. supplements and doc agreed. I take prometrium 100mg. 2x/day. At 8 weeks I went up to 33. Doc told me to go off prog. at 10 weeks, of which I answered, "no way, Jose!" I stayed on til 12 weeks, went off and was feeling crampy - may or may not have been related. Asked nurse for bloodwork and found progesterone had gone down to 29. I asked to stay on longer- she agreed, for one week. I am now 14 weeks and am waiting for blood test results I had done a few days ago, but am starting to wean myself off prom.. Important- I have read alot that says to wean off- don't just stop...levels may drop too drastically. I write all of this to encourage you to not be scared to ask for tests...it was hard for me to ask...but they said that if its for my peace of mind then they'll do it. I hate that the doc doesn't agree with me...he didn't want to do anymore bloodwork...but I am not going to get this far to have the pregnancy fail due to bad judgement. One last note - very important. I have a low thyroid, and take synthroid. I know that it is optimal for pregnancy to be between 1-2 TSH. I had two docs tell me that my level of 5 was okay. Again, I said no its not. We need to up my synthroid. We upped my synthroid and at 8 weeks my level was at 1.76...perfect. Please have your thyroid levels taken and understand that the optimal TSH to get pregnant is between 1-2. Also do searches and read how important the thyroid function is. However, if your TSH is high and you start synthroid you have to take it for the rest of your life...so thats the drawback. I have a question now - has anyone gone off of progesterone only to have a miscarriage, or problems after? A nurse did tell me that some people have to stay on progesterone for entire pregnancy. I say who cares about the discomforts of supplements- I'd rather be deathly ill everyday and have a healthy baby. Good luck to all!!

I went for blood work today and U/S tomorrow. I will keep you all posted. I am going to see about them giving me progest. Thanks for your input and support

I went on progesterone at 5 weeks (small amount of spotting - like a dime sized pink splodge after urination). My progesterone was at 12; my HCG was at 5000. My doctor thought this was OK. I insisted on the progesterone. He said fine, but if I was destined to miscarry, it wouldn't help. At six weeks morning sickness set in, and at 7 1/2 weeks the ultrasound showed a baby with it's heart beating away. My progesterone was in the normal range and my HCG was doing what it should. All seemed fine. Two weeks later, still sick as anything, I went back for another ultrasound. The baby had died. I had no warning - no spotting, still had morning sickness, etc... The embryo had begun to disintegrate. Fetal death was put at around 8 weeks. However, the sac and placenta were the right size for dates. They had continued to grow - the progesterone was doing it's job. The baby had died for other reasons - probably chromosomal abnormalities. The doctor is having the tissue tested at the lab. You can have low progesterone for two reasons - you have what's called Luteal Phase Defect, which means you have chronically low progesterone. If this is your problem, supplements will solve it. HOwever, abnormal embryos will frequently have low progesterone - they are destined to fail. Taking progesterone when a Luteal Phase Defect is NOT the cause will delay mc. My doctor is great and scans me every one or two weeks when pregnant. Some doctors don't and women don't find out till 12 weeks that their pregnancy actually ended 4 or 5 weeks earlier. So now I don't know if I have a Luteal Phase Defect or just had a bad throw of the dice this last time. Or both!!! I've had two previous mc's this year at 6 weeks, but one was ectopic... Too confusing. Anyway, I'm having blood tests done to check for EVERYTHING, including LPD. The real gold standard for diagnosing it is an endometrial biopsy - but I hope I don't need it. Most times two blood tests one month apart, several days after ovulation - will give you a pretty good answer.

I am not sure if I have a luteal phase defect but I was diagnosed with poly cystic ovaries in aug (which is common for low progest) but once I followed a low carb diet, I got pregnant in september. Perhaps it is low preg due to the disease or just a bad pregnancy. I am still spotting, similar to you and I will keep you posted. Thanks for sharing you experience. Good luck and I hope your labs give you more answers.

I had a m/c in late July, after meeting with dr, we discovered I have a history of a short (9 day) luteal phase. After I had my period he checked my progesterone when I ovulated and wanted to check it when I got pg again. I got my period today with some brownish spotting yesterday. Has anyone ever been started on progesterone during the luteal phase to increase the levels?

I found out last week that I'm pregnant. The day after I found out I started spotting. Some red initially then more browish since then. My dr checked my progesterone levels and HCG. My progesteone level is at 10 and they have me on supplements. What I'm equally worried about is my hcg level. It's not rising like it should and I'm concerned. On Monday it was 21,000 and on Wednesday it was 24,000 when it should have doubled. I went for an ultrasound this morning and saw the baby's heartbeat (thank God). I didn't know if it was Ok or not, but everything looked good! I have an ovarian cyst which is causing the low progesterone level according to the ultrasound technicial. She also said that low progesterone can cause low hcg levels, but mine seem to not be increasing nearly at the pace it's supposed to. Does anyone know if low progesterone can cause your hcg level to not increase as it should??

I found out last week that I'm pregnant. The day after I found out I started spotting. Some red initially then more browish since then. My dr checked my progesterone levels and HCG. My progesteone level is at 10 and they have me on supplements. What I'm equally worried about is my hcg level. It's not rising like it should and I'm concerned. On Monday it was 21,000 and on Wednesday it was 24,000 when it should have doubled. I went for an ultrasound this morning and saw the baby's heartbeat (thank God). I didn't know if it was Ok or not, but everything looked good! I have an ovarian cyst which is causing the low progesterone level according to the ultrasound technicial. She also said that low progesterone can cause low hcg levels, but mine seem to not be increasing nearly at the pace it's supposed to. Does anyone know if low progesterone can cause your hcg level to not increase as it should??

I had lowish progesterone with my last pregnancy (12), but at 5 weeks my HCG was at 5000 and doubled the next two blood tests. I had a lot of morning sickness, which is sometimes the case with high HCG. My doctor put me on progesterone supplements and my levels went on. However, after seeing a heartbeat two weeks later (10 weeks) baby had died. Doctor suspects chromosomal abnormalities (tissue is being tested in the lab). Low progesterone is often nature's way of trying to "take care of" an abnormal pregnancy. Progesterone supplements only work if you have low pregesterone due to Luteal Phase Defect (your body doesn't make enough progesterone generally). This can be diagnosed by two consecutive blood tests after you ovulate, and even more definitively by an endometrial biopsy. However these are costly and time consuming. Many doctors will throw progesterone at you if your prog. is low, just in case that's your problem and it might save the pregnancy. Of course that's worth a shot - I did it, even though my doctor told me without a diagnosis before getting pregnant they couldn't know for sure why the progesterone was low. Progesterone supplements can cause missed miscarriage if you are miscarrying for some other reason, which also results in low progesterone levels. If this happens to you (miscarriage while on progesterone), you should have the tests done before getting pregnant. Of course, it is possible to have low progesterone, get pregnant while on supplements, and still have an chromosomally abnormal embryo which miscarries. If this is the case for me, I'll know because the embryo is being tested for abnormalities AND I'm being tested for Luteal PHase Defect (as well as a host of other problems). Hopefully I'll get an answer and will be able to do everything possible next time I get pregnant. I get pregnant VERY easily (first try always). I've been pregnant 5 times, and only have one child (but thank God for that!). I had her when I wa in my late 20s without any progesterone supplements, But I'm now 37 - so I'm at higher risk for all sorts of problems. It's not easy.

You can check my earlier posts to get the low down on my scenerio, but for those of you that are regular followers you will be happy to know that I had a successful ultra sound this morning. I saw a baby and little heart beating. I am seven weeks tom. The heart rate was 119bpm, which they tell me is normal for this stage of pregnancy. My next question is... should I push for more ultra sounds, as the tech. said that they may wait until 10-13 weeks, unless I have problems such as cramping or bleeding, etc. (Which I have not had so far) Like so many stories I have read, I do not want to jump the gun here and a__sume all is well, when in fact it could not. The low progesterone doesn't seem to be a problem now that I am taking supp.'s . Should I go along with my first trimester pregnancy like a "normal" person, or should I push for the more frequent visits? The worrying can drive a person insane. Thanks for input.

E, I worried and continue to, just like you. My appts. are once a month - I saw baby and heartbeat at 6 weeks, then by 7 weeks I was worried again...changed docs and got to see it again (the first doc didn't treat me like high risk and didn't want to do bloodwork).. Then at 9 weeks I worried again...I just needed to hear that heartbeat. Well, I went in because I thought I had a yeast infection, and while there told the midwife that I was a little crampy...which I was...I only exaggerated slightly :),(a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do) so that I could have another ultrasound - she seemed very receptive to giving me another one, and all was well after that. Heard heartbeat at 11 weeks, and now feel comfortable going once a month...I have an appt. next week. Don't drive yourself crazy - just ask for it. Good luck!!

If you are one progesterone supplements your doctor should give you an ultrasound at least once every two weeks, if not every week. See my above posts. I have low progesterone, but despite being on supplements which seemed to be doing their job, I still miscarried at almost 10 weeks after seeing strong heartbeat at 8 weeks. Miscarriages around 8 weeks are almost always due to chromosomal problems. I am having the tissue a___lysed to be sure. Progesterone supplements will cause this to present without bleeding and will keep hormones like HCG pumping. The sac continues to grow, not realizing baby has died. The only way to find this out is to have frequent ultrasounds, otherwise you could go on thinking you are still pregnant for 4-6 weeks without knowing. It would be awful to think you are 12 weeks or so and out of the woods, and THEN to get hit with the news that things didn't work out. Best to find out immediately. And if things are going well, you will ride that high for awhile until the next ultrasound. You will have less anxiety - better for you and for baby. Badger your doctor! If he/she won't accomodate you, find another one.

I am nearly 8 weeks pregnant. My doctor says that my progesterone levels are at 13.5 and should be at 18-20 to avoid miscarriage. I started taking progesterone and had a ichy reaction. I am conserned because on the box, it says do not take if pregnant or think you are. My doctor says it is natural prog. and that I shouldn't be worried, but why would it say it on the box? If I don't supplement, am I in great danger of losing the baby?