The cheered me up, maybe you too?

avenue · 01-31-2008, 07:35 AM

Since I m/c I spent hours trying to find out why. I think I have finally found an answer. After reading the stories on this website http://lowprogesteroneinpregnancy.com/gpage.html I have to believe its a progesterone problem. Most of the stories m/c the same time as I did with the same symptoms there were even pcos stories on there. I am so happy now that I have some FORM of answer! Im not a doctor but I just feel its right. This time Im getting a good thermometer, OPKs and natural progesterone cream! As for the NPC I figure I ll take it after I ovulate along with baby aspirin and when I get an BFP I will run to the doctors office and get a progesterone shot or suppositories. I bet you guys know all about this stuff but maybe someone will have an opinion on it or something? I know it is weird that Im writing a happy letter in this forum especially since there is a similar one already stickied, but I read that one and it didnt hit me. Reading those stories really did! So if you need inspiration and havent been there before check it out, all the posters have had m/c(s) followed by healthy babies. It really cheered me up

RunnerDuck · 01-31-2008, 03:08 PM

It *may* be true in some cases but I really think it's a mixed bag and you shouldn't hang your hopes on it. A lot of miscarriages are due to bad egg quality or chomosomal problems. NOT something progesterone can fix - but things which may cause low progesterone. Do you see the difference? You would need to have a good egg to begin with and then and only then will progesterone help you - but in most cases IMO a good egg will produce good progesterone. Not all, but most.

My 3rd m/c being the best case in point, my p4 was in the 12-15 range which is low but I was taking 600mg of p4 suppositories a day - the baby just didn't develop fast enough and the heart stopped at 8 weeks. I can look at that and say it was a bad egg and p4 wouldn 't have helped. My 1st mc was a blighted ovum - p4 was "normal" at 18 or so but nothing developed in the gestational sac.

I am not saying it WON'T help you, just not to hang your hopes on it being a magic cure. I think a lot of us get too worked up over progesterone but I really think in most cases p4 indicates how good the egg is, not just how likely the pregnancy is to succeed.

If you really want to give progesterone a shot, I would see if your doc will prescribe prometrium suppositories to take after O and use those instead of NPC. Personally I bled like a stuck pig on NPC which, while not the usual reaction, makes me wary of someone's relying on it as a means of sustaining pregnancy. In my case I fear it could cause me to lose the pregnancy.

justagirlgirlgirl · 02-02-2008, 09:15 PM

Yes, what RunnerDuck said. According to my doctor, it is very controversial. Obviously, your body has to have progesterone to have a healthy pregnancy. But some doctors think that the low progesterone happens because of a problem in the pregnancy, and not vice versa. If that's the case, then boosting the progesterone would only prolong the inevitable loss.

At the same time though, I'm in the 2ww and wondering if I should have asked about progesterone supplements...

avenue · 02-03-2008, 12:55 AM

I think if my hcg is doublinh normally and my prog is low then I will take supplements, if its not doubling normally then I wont

RunnerDuck · 02-03-2008, 01:26 AM

Won't hurt, may help... or, may not. Back to my first m/c, my betas were doubling great... but alas, no dice with that one.

If you want a good read on m/c there is a book called "coming to term" by a man with the last name Cohen... first name Jon or Ben, I think? Goes into lots of detail on m/c... why it happens... what can be done... what's experimental... what's proven... but above all the fact that women who miscarry overwhelmingly go on to have normal pregnancies later even without intervention.

I held on to this particular notion when, after 3 losses, I was torn between paying out the @$$ for immunological treatments or trusting that all I needed was a good egg via the right medications... well I never ended up going the immunology route.

I do have mild clotting factors but I was not convinced that was my problem. I take baby aspirin and Folgard but these are cheapy cheap treatments which may or may not have had anything to do with my success. Oh, and I took prednisone which may help with repeat loss - or may not - but again, cheap cheap. Some of these experimental treatments will run you into the thousands of dollars... and with one loss I would NOT be worrying yet - you will probably be FINE next time. but it's still a good read. Lots of science aimed at the average joe, lots to learn, and very reassurring IMO.

wishingandhoping · 02-04-2008, 02:38 AM

Avenue--I'm so sorry for your loss! I just wanted to chime in that I am a big believer in the progesterone supplements helping. Not all the time of course, but sometimes it is what is needed. My first miscarriage I knew nothing about any of this. It was our first round of clomid and my p4 at 7dpo was very low, about 5. The doc said I didn't ovulate and had no chance of becoming pg. I had a bfp and didn't go in for my first appt until I was about 7 weeks. I had started spotting but she said everything was looking good, and she had me start supplements then. It was too late at that point and I miscarried a few days later. I read sugarbugs thread about prog. several months after the m/c and I firmly believe that m/c was because of low progesterone. And my RE, a year and a half later agreed, and put me on progesterone after ovulation. I had a very healthy pregnancy. Maybe I would have without the progesterone but I didn't want to chance it. Our second loss in Nov, I was on the progesterone and I still miscarried. So like I said, I don't think it is the problem for every m/c but it is still a real problem and I won't do another cycle without the progesterone.

HTH,

Dani

uwalcott · 02-04-2008, 02:47 AM

I loved Coming to Term as well- very informative and did give me some hope since the ladies who had multiple losses pretty much all ended up with a healthy baby. However, I didn't find it reassuring. Basically it just went through all the treatments available for m/c and told me that none of them were exactly proven to work and that chance pretty much determines if the pg will continue or not. I think in Cohen's mind most m/c's are chromosomally caused. He seems to act like that is OK. To my mind that is not becuase chromosomal abnormalities are the ONE thing that there is no way to treat or prevent. To produce nothing but chromosomally abnormal embryos seems MORE tragic to me than having IC or low prog. or anotehr problem that can be fixed. Does that make sense? Also it's not like it's not sad to lose a baby that has chromosome problems vs. one that's healthy. It feels exactly the same. I have never lost a healthy baby but know many girls that have and their feelings were identical to mine. Also with the chromosome problems there is a greater chance of having a child with birth defects (as I do) so that makes it scary as well. I don't know, reading the book was good and bad for me.