progesterone w/o early ultrasounds--have you done it?

[escher]

Hi Everyone,

I need some advice. I'm wondering what other people have done who took progesterone supplements and who chose not to have early ultrasounds.

I'm newly pregnant (5 weeks 2 days), and I'm taking prometrium vaginally twice a day. The doctor who prescribed the prometrium suggests that all her patients do early ultrasounds. I don't want to do them: I'm not convinced of their safety, and I feel like this pregnancy will either work or not work on its own. My concern is that since I am taking progesterone, I don't know if I would know if I miscarried. My fear is that I would get to my first midwife appointment at 11 weeks, they wouldn't be able to hear a heartbeat, and it would turn out that I had miscarried weeks before.

Any thoughts or advice? Are there other ways I could tell that the pregnancy is still progressing without doing ultrasounds? Do I just need to accept not really knowing for the next 6 weeks?

Thank you!

[TonyaW]

If the pregnancy is not viable you will miscarry regardless. At least that was true in my situation. I was bleeding despite using progesterone suppositories.

[Pinoikoi]

I did progesterone for my last pregnancy.. I only did it because my bloodwork was low. My OB never suggested an ultrasound for me. I did eventually miscarry that pregnancy without any ultrasounds of any kind. This pregnancy my bloodwork was normal, I did not take progesterone, but I did have a fairly early ultrasound- I wanted to try a homebirth and you can't legally homebirth in Alaska if you are pregnant with twins, so I wanted to ensure early on that I was having a singleton as it would affect my birth choices if I wasn't. It wasn't an extensive ultrasound- less than 5 minutes I think- they just wanted to check that there was one baby and that the basic size matched up with my charting for due date.

[happythistle]

I also took progesterone supps and did not have an ultrasound. We had a quick one at 14 weeks to check for twins - singleton only. :-) My ob heard the hb at 9 weeks which was heaven after 4 m/cs. The progesterone sucked big time but it was worth it for us!
Best of luck to you~

[tinynyota]

I don't know. I do think there's a risk that the progesterone would potentially 'hide' a pregnancy that wasn't going to make it, and that your body would take longer to let go. It's something to consider.

I've taken the supps twice, but with early u/s both times. The first wasn't going to make it, and I stopped the prog at about 6.5 weeks. Even so, my body didn't let go and I had a D&C 3.5 weeks later. But I don't know if the progesterone had anything to do with the timing. Sadly, a missed miscarriage is a risk with or without progesterone - although with certain issues I would think the progesterone would make the process take longer.
For me, I really needed the reassurance of the (very quick) ultrasound - the anxiety was too much for me otherwise.

But I predict that this is a total non-issue because you have a super sticky babe in there!!

[m0xxie]

About 2 years ago, I had a miscarriage at about 6 weeks, confirmed by early ultrasound when I started spotting. I elected to miscarry naturally, and it didn't happen until week 12, meantime I stopped spotting and I was feeling as pregnant as ever, m/s, bloating, fatigue, weight gain, everything, right up until the contractions and major bleeding started at 12w 2d.

This time I elected to take prometrium (200mg once a day vaginally) starting at about week 5. Again, I started spotting, just shy of week 7, but this time the u/s at 7w 2d showed a full-size fetus with a strong heartbeat.

So what I learned... not taking hormones did not speed up the miscarriage, and taking hormones did not prevent spotting.

No idea really if taking the hormones is actually helping or just acting as a placebo for me, but as long as that little heart beats, I don't care!

[jessieb503]

I have had three miscarriages. For all of them I didn't start bleeding until about 3-4 weeks after the baby stopped developing- I was only taking progesterone for one of those and they are three were the same.

I think you just have to decide whether or not you can wait until 11 weeks to hear the heartbeat or if you need reassurance earlier. I chose this pregnancy to get an early ultrasound because I needed reassurance- and I am very happy I did.

[PrettyHippie]

This is my second time using the progesterone. My last time with this the pregnancy ended at 20 weeks but it wasn't related to the progesterone at all. This time I've been on the cream since ovulation and I'm 13w5d. We didn't have an early ultrasound with either. With the little girl I lost they would have probably picked up something odd on an ultrasound but nothing could have been done and it wouldn't have made it any easier in the end. Fortunately it was something VERY rare. With this baby I was very nervous up until my first midwife appointment when thank God there was a heartbeat! In the meantime I just clung to the breast tenderness and few symptoms I had as everything was ok! So yeah, I've been there!! It really can try your nerves, but if you really do not want to have an early ultrasound just hang in there! If you can't take it a really quick u/s may be your best bet. Best wishes!

[escher]

Thank you very much for your thoughtful replies. I'm so grateful that you were willing to share your experience and stories. This is exactly why I love mothering.com.

It sounds like maybe part (most?) of what I'm experiencing is just first trimester anxiety, and has nothing to do with taking progesterone. It's good to remember that a missed miscarriage is possible for anyone, but that it is likely that if I miscarry I will bleed. And it is good too to remember that even if the progesterone delayed when I knew about the miscarriage, it might not really matter--it would be hard whenever it happened, but I would obviously survive.

Anyway, hopefully this little one will keep on growing and thriving!