Hcg levels and other stress inducing stuff

[SteelerMom]

Okay, first of all, I am a 34 year old mom of 3, the youngest is a little over 2 years old and still breastfeeding.  We co-sleep and she was up until a few nights ago feeding several times at night.  I should have been charting to avoid I guess but may have been secretly hoping for another baby so wasn't keeping track of bbt and all that, just noticing cervical fluid consistency etc. and making a mental noted of it.  My cycles had been pretty short, 26 days and when I was checking ovulation more accurately, it was happening around cd 18 a few months ago.  Anyway dh and I were "intimate" on cycle day 13 only this month (I know, pretty lame) and by cd 28 I took a test and it was faintly positive.  I called the doctor to see if I should have some labwork because I am stil breastfeeding  (I had 3 chemical pregnancies before my youngest when I got pregnant while breastfeeding my second.  After the first chemical pregnancy, my cycles had a serious luteal phase defect ... like a 7 day luteal phase),  My last cylce before I conceived my youngest, the luteal phase was 9 days.  The doctor prescribed crinone gel and I used that the first 12 weeks.  This time, I had betas drawn on cd 30 and 32 with no definitive day of ovulation.  The results were 85 and 150.  Those do not look good to me but the doctor has not mentioned any concern.  I have done my own research and am not impressed.  The doctor refused to order a progesterone level.  Any opinions?  I don't even know if I have a specific question, but I am not a fan of uncertainty!

[allisonrose]

I recently went in to see a family doctor about some spotting and asked about checking progesterone levels and was told "we don't do that" followed by "we wouldn't know what to do with it". If the doctor you saw was a family practice doctor, s/he might just not know the significance of progesterone in pregnancy.

I have read that in theory sperm can survive for up to 6 days in the appropriate environment. So perhaps you ovulated as late as CD19 which could make CD30=11 DPO. With my first son, I had HCG checked on 15 DPO (I believe) and 17 DPO and my results were something like 58 and 100. (That was 4 years ago and I cannot remember the exact numbers.) I ended up getting a third blood draw since my numbers didn't quite double between the first two. The third was high enough to be reassuring. The end result is a rambunctious 4 year old who is in preschool as I type this.