Can you have a progesterone issue without a LP defect?

[PrincessWinnie]

Long story short, I had a veeeery early miscarriage in January (like 5 weeks). After all was over, I went to visit my obgyn to get the okay on all my bloodwork/exam and move forward. She was horrible, barely answered my questions and treated me coldly. She gave me a script for Prometrium to use in future TTC cycles "because that's probably why you lost this one". Huh. Without a blood test or anything. Interesting. Fast forward to our first cycle TTC in March where I started taking Prometrium at 4 DPO. The side effects were horrible - extreme exhaustion, dizziness, etc. Something about taking it just felt "wrong" to me. We ended having a chemical which I probably wouldn't even have known about had I not been monitoring my cycle so closely.

I decided to change OB's after that, found a really wonderful, gentle ob who reassured me and gave me such calm and peace about my situation that it immediately made me feel so positive and eager for the future. She didn't want me to take the prometrium unless I really wanted to -my LP was over 14 days, I have a very obvious thermal shift in my temps after ovulation. She said if I dont get pg this cycle they'll do a progesterone test at CD3 just to be sure but she had alot of confidence that I just had a string of bad luck and to trust my body. I'm at 6 DPO without the prometrium so we'll see.

So I guess my "long story short" which didn't turn out to be such is that is it possible to have a progesterone issue with a normal-longish luteal phase and recognizable thermal shift in temps? I'd really like to continue TTC without the prometrium as all the symptoms mimic pregancy and it drove me CRAZY.

[MaerynPearl]

I would not jump to the thought that the reason you lost that one had anything to do with progesterone. It was probably the more common reason for first trimester loss... there was something wrong and had the baby continued to grow they would have been lost much later on. Most miscarriages have nothing to do with your progesterone level.

I would try to either get into your doctor again or switch doctors and discuss why you would be given a prescription for something after only one loss with no blood testing whatsoever and no signs of a progesterone deficiency.

That said, yes you can have low progesterone without an LP defect... however you can also have low progesterone and not really have low progesterone... meaning you can test at a low even though you are actually totally normal. Also, many women jump to the conclusion that they have low progesterone after a miscarriage because before the miscarriage it tested low... even though many many doctors believe that is just a sign that the pregnancy is not going to progress, not that it is threatened by the progesterone level.

Usually women who actually need progesterone during pregnancy will have some very definite signs... such as bleeding but no sign of loss or an LP defect before they even conceive.

Even testing at a low in early pregnancy does NOT necessarily mean there is anything wrong at all with the pregnancy. I tested at a 7 at about 2 months in, but my doctors reaction was... if you start spotting or losing your symptoms we will treat you. If not we are going to assume you just tested at a low. My next test was a 17 (very nice number) and showed we had no reason to worry at all.