Progesterone Cream?

[liliesandliars]

Questions about natural progesterone cream...

- what's it for, exactly?
- is it safe for all of us to use?
- do you use it?

[Queen of Cups]

I've heard that the natural progesterone cream (used in theory to increase your prog levels to help strengthen the uterine lining) is not strong enough to actually affect your prog levels at all, and that in order to get a significant amount into your system you'd have to literally bathe in it constantly.

But I could be wrong...

[momto l&a]

It gets and keeps me preggo. I tried on the suggestion of a Dr who had a number of women succesfully get and stay preggo using natural progesterone.

[Queen of Cups]

You had success with the over-the-counter cream? Or a prescription cream? I was talking about the OTC creams you can get at organic grocery stores... I'm on prescription progesterone supplements, myself.

[SoggyGranolaMomma]

I used the healthfood store stuff for about a week this pregnancy.

I have luteal phase disorder and always started spotting before I could implant a pregnancy. I took Vitamin B-6 supplements for 2 cycles of the 3 we tried before concieving this one.

About 2 days after my BFP I started spotting after sex, I freaked and started the cream. The spotting stopped, it was related to a sensitive cervix and sexual position. I stopped using the cream after about a week.

For my own body, based on research, the last two times I had "sticky" babies, I ovulated earlier in my cycle, cd12 instead of 14. If I ovulated on cd14, I didn't have enough time to get a solid implantation. Even women with untreated LPD can maintain pregnancies, so I figured as long as I implanted sooner, I probably had a good chance of holding it. That seems to be what I'm doing.

[Belleweather]

I tried it when I was TTC and it helped raise my temperatures in the later half of my cycle. I suspect that I had a strange sort of Luteal Phase defect, because my cycle was technically long enough but the temperatures didn't rise sharply or ever get very high. Acuptuncture and Chinese Medicine did a lot more to correct that than the progesterone cream ever did.

I've heard that it can be useful post-partum, though, to help level things out again and for PMS and Menopause. But since you need to be producing SO much more progesterone in pregnancy than you do in your normal menstrual cycle, I think you'd be better off with prescription supplements. (That said, it smells really nice, and felt great on my skin, so I kinda miss it actually... I'm keeping it around for after the baby comes, but every once in a while I have to go open the tube and sniff... I got the Amara brand and it smells like flowers and tangerines. Yum!)