Progesterone dropping

[Therese's Mommy]

I am 9w3d pg.  My last 2 pregnancies ended in m/c.  My primary doc (not an OB) has me on progesterone suppositories just to be safe.  At 5w4d my progesterone was 27.  We checked it again at 8w5d and it has dropped to 17.  He isn't worried, but he isn't an OB.  He says it is still within normal range for first trimester, but to definitely keep up the suppositories.  I went in today to get the level rechecked, but I won't know anything until at least the morning.  Is it possible that everything is ok or am I getting ready to miscarry again??  Thanks for any shared experiences.

Beth

[depriele]

Hi Beth, I am a direct entry midwife, and I had experience with my daughter's miscarriages and subsequent pregnancies regarding progesterone problems.  As she was many states away from me, I was just her phone consultant, and she was going to an OB.  She had had several very early miscarriages previously and progesterone levels were never questioned.  When she started spotting withing 2 weeks of being pregnant with her 1st live child, I researched, came to the conclusion that low progesterone was a likely cause. and   consulted with a trusted midwife friend.  We suggested that she should immediately start rubbing progesterone cream on her abdomen and get right in to have her progesterone levels checked by her OB.  Her level was 12 at 2 weeks.  The OB felt it was amazing that her body hadn't already miscarried.  She may have been even lower than 12 before using the cream.  She started on the suppositories, 200 mg, once a day, and at 14 weeks, stopped, as that is when the placenta is normally ready to take over.  However, she started spotting again, and so started back and kept using it until at 16 weeks, her body was obviously not absorbing the suppository.  She knew this because most to all of it was dripping out.  Her spotting was red, not brown, and sometimes heavy spotting.  The next pregnancy, she immediately began on the progesterone, and found that towards the end she needed to up the 200mg suppository to 1 q 12 hrs to keep from spotting thru the 16weeks, until her placenta took over.  She had her 2nd live birth..  The 3rd live birth pregnancy she needed 400mg suppositories, and upped from 1 to 2 daily, and then even to 1 q 6hrs.  The OB said there was no danger from taking progesterone at those levels, and my daughter realized during this pregnancy that she had to pay close attention to her body to determine for herself how much progesterone to take.  There is no exact science for it, and the OB never checked her levels again, trusting on the relieving of her only symptom.  Her only symptom was the spotting, which 'said' that the placenta was not getting enough progesterone.  The OB agreed that if her body needed more, give it more.  Don't panic! Take long, deep breathes if you begin to panic. Do your best and trust God for the rest.

BTW, My daughter was taking excellent natural food supplements (all are not the same), and I hope you are too.  Real, natural bodies need real, natural food & real, natural food supplements for nourishment of all the cells (baby's and mommy's).  My daughter had used birth control pills for more than 10 years, and she knew they had played havoc with her real, natural body, and she got off them 2 years before becoming pregnant, to do a monumental job of building up her body naturally.  Yet, her hormones were wacked and stayed wacked during each pregnancy.  She had a tubal ligation after the 3rd birth, and that is another topic.  Hope this helps!

[LilyTiger]

Therese, keep in mind too that a single progesterone reading can be very misleading, since prog levels drop and spike throughout the day.  I was told I was probably not ovulating at all due to one low progesterone reading and that was the month I conceived.  You really need a string of low readings to demonstrate a true pattern.  I hope everything goes well for you! 

[alicewyf]

My OB practices NaPro technology and is a huge proponent of progesterone testing and supplementation. Here's an article with charts that I have found really helpful on their website:

http://www.naprotechnology.com/progesterone.htm

From my own research and experience I would want to be supplemented a little more strongly if I were you with a result of 17, depending on the results of your latest test. There is such a thing as progesterone in oil that is given as an injection. You might ask your OB about that if suppositories or oral progesterone isn't producing a response in your body. It is also helpful to be on bioidentical progesterone as opposed to something like Provera.