Does anyone have experience where your progesterone was low in early pregnancy, you used suppositories, but the pregnancy was not viable? I have had 3 previous losses, so I had my beta and progesterone drawn yesterday at 12dpo. My hcg was 34 (so fairly low but not totally conclusive) but my progesterone was only 7. I started using suppositories last night just in case, but my guess is that the low progesterone is a symptom of another early loss, not its cause. Of course, I know we can't be sure. And now I'm nauseous from the progesterone, which is especially annoying. I haven't POAS since yesterday morning because it would be too hard to get through the workday today. I will tomorrow morning. Anyone have a similar experience? If the line is lighter tomorrow, should I just stop the progesterone so that it doesn't delay the miscarriage? Thanks!
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Personally I wouldn’t stop the progesterone without my doctor telling me to. When are you having betas retested?
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@LindsayInNY: yeah, I know I probably shouldn't. I just really want to get this over with. I will go back on Monday morning.
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@Chuckles: congrats on the BFP!!!
I have a very complicated relationship with progesterone 🤨. I always pushed for it thinking it would help me get pregnant but my OB said they really couldn't find evidence that it helped. If you're going to miscarry, you're going to miscarry. In fact for my second pregnancy I took it and I think it drew out/ delayed my miscarriage like you suggested. I lost a baby at 8 weeks and didn't know till 12 at NT scan- no bleeding or anything. I have heard suddenly stopping it could make you miscarry though so I would stay on it!I used the suppositories quite a few times to try to GET pregnant also and looking back I don't think it did anything. Not only that, I'm not sure I loved the exposure of the hormone to the baby. I also think it's sort of started to mess with my cycles because I did it like 3 months in a row with my BFNs.
This 3rd pregnancy, I took it till 12 weeks and I'm on Makena progesterone injections now to prevent preterm. Sorry if this was confusing. I don't think it helps in the long run and looking back I would not do 1st tri progesterone support again. -
@Chuckles: What if there’s nothing to “get over with”? 12 dpo is still early so your betas might be totally normal.
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One beta number on 12dpo is not indicative of anything.
I cant remember my numbers but mine were low to start and successful
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@LindsayInNY: and @desertdreams88: thanks for the encouragement(?). I guess it's hard to be optimistic since I've had 3 consecutive losses all this year. Plus, even though there's mixed evidence of how helpful progesterone supplements are, a level of 7 is incompatible with a successful pregnancy. If my hcg number was the same but progesterone was higher, I wouldn't be too worried.
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@pachamama: yeah, I feel like it's a hail Mary, since there is that mixed evidence. Though I was looking at one of the studies that showed no difference with treatment or not, and it looked like the subjects had unexplained loss but not specifically low progesterone. I guess since your loss was later, you don't know what was happening to your hcg levels, right? I'm thinking that with the progesterone, my hcg will continue to rise, but slowly, if the pregnancy really isn't viable. Ugh. I don't know if POAS this weekend is a good idea or not.
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@Chuckles: yeah I never got my betas tested. My symptoms went away at 10w too which was odd. POAS is so fraught with emotion; I remember so many many days being destroyed over another BFN. I wish I had an easy answer for you, you've been through so much.
I will be annoying and suggest maybe looking into some blood clotting issues? It seems like a lot of ladies with early losses have a little blood clotting problem that can be quickly solved with Levonox or whatever that med is called. -
I would wait a bit to stop because there’s no knowing yet. When I had an early loss after an IUI I stopped taking it after my betas went flat (even though I knew it was over before that based on my test lines). When I had a d&c at 11w last year I wasn’t on progesterone and it still had probably been almost 3 weeks since the heart stopped beating and almost no signs. And I only had a bit of blood they first told me to ignore even at that point. Just to say, sometimes it just drags out for no reason anyway. Because loss really sucks.
It’s hard to say whether to poas - if it drives you crazy I’d try not to, but I’m totally guilty of always doing it so no judgment for sure!!
Big big hugs. Repeat loss sucks and I hope so so hard this one is sticky for you!!!
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@pachamama: thanks. I started seeing an RE and they tested for lots of things, but not clotting - maybe because I've had a successful pregnancy? But I'm on baby aspirin just in case and vita-fol for a particular kind of folic acid. If I have another loss, i will ask about any other testing.
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@bhbee: thank you! I also had a missed MC this summer where we thought things weren't viable at 8 weeks and I needed a D&C at 10, so I'm more sensitive about it now. I keep thinking about your history and it makes me hopeful that we just need to keep trying.
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This is tough, I’m sorry. I’d probably hold off and wait to see what your betas are next week. I have stopped progesterone when I knew things weren’t going to work out, and my doc said missing a couple of days wouldn’t change anything anyway (although my levels were normal).
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@Chuckles: 34 is a pretty darn good HCG for 12DPO!
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@LAZB: thanks. I think I will test this morning and stop only if the line is super light. But I'll still go in Monday. I'm really hoping you get good numbers on Monday!
@catchafallingstar: yeah, I really want to be hopeful but it's hard. -
Well, on to #4. My line this morning was back to being a squinter. This sucks.
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@Chuckles: ugh, I’m so sorry. Remind me, have you had repeat loss testing? They may not “count” chemicals, but 4 losses seems significant regardless.
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@LAZB: I started seeing a RE after the 3rd one. I've had 2 chemicals, one lost after 2 weeks, and 1 blighted ovum/missed MC at 8 weeks. We did the initial testing like karyotype, hormone levels, etc, and DH did his SA. And I did the saline ultrasound. Everything came back normal so far except that his morphology is 7%, so not great but not absolutely terrible. And my vitamin D levels were low. But I've been taking that for 2 months now. I need to make sure they tested thyroid levels and I want to ask about the clotting, but I'm not sure what else to ask about. Any ideas of what else they should be testing? Since they've been different types of losses, I think it's harder to see what could be happening.
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@Chuckles: no idea, sorry. I’m definitely asking about it though if I lose this one too.
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@Chuckles: I'm so sorry to hear about the squinter. I hope it's a fluke but I know it's hard to get your hopes up. Would your RE consider prescribing progesterone to take after ovulation?
FWIW, I have PCOS and DH has morphology of 1%. Weve gotten pregnant 3 times... first one was no assistance and a loss, 2nd was clomid days 2-6 + metformin + post-ov progesterone, and 3rd same but without clomid. 2nd and 3rd resulted in 2 babies. My son started off at 18 hcg at 13dpo.
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@DesertDreams88: Thanks. That's encouraging that your DH's morphology hasn't affected things too much for you. My DH started taking coQ10 to possibly help with sperm quality, but I'm not too worried about it. (though the fact that all 4 losses, based on type/timing, are probably chromosomal issues, does make me wonder) And this time I didn't start baby aspirin or the progesterone until a day or two after my BFP, so I will ask about starting both as soon as I ovulate.
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@Chuckles: UGH I’m so so sorry. My DH has morph below 5% I think and they told us it was probably not a factor, but who knows. Definitely ask about the clotting and related factors - I bet you could find a good list online. My RE did have me do baby aspirin (daily) and progesterone (like 3 days post ov or iui) both as a just in case even though there’s not amazing data.
Sending big hugs
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@Chuckles: ugh I'm sorry. 4 losses is devastating.
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@bhbee: and @pachamama: thanks for your support. I'm in a weird place where part of me is like, oh this again? Nbd. Especially because of my levels are already dropping at least it will be over quickly. And part of me is extra devastated because it's clear that it's possible that this will keep happening or we'll have to decide to stop trying.
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@Chuckles: I totally get both those feelings.
Hoping they can give you some next steps to check out.
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@Chuckles: test infhe afternoon! My morning tests were always lighter
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@CatchAFallingStar: I find that mine are lighter in the morning too. Unfortunately the test was lighter Saturday morning than it had been Thursday morning.
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@Chuckles: so sorry
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@bhbee: can you remind me, did you do anything differently for your successful pregnancy after your losses? Did you consider IVF with genetic testing of the embryos?
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@Chuckles: sorry in advance this is rambly ...
we did consider ivf - that was what my RE suggested after my 4th loss and all the testing (which didn’t tell us anything useful). That 4th loss was a clomid IUI with progesterone so we’d covered all the easy bases. And then we happened to get lucky on a non-med cycle so we never did ivf - we were moving at the time and I even had an appt set up with an RE in our new state. Anyway, the old RE said (I may have said this before) basically we don’t make that many good embryos even though neither of us have a clear issue ... so if we did ivf with pgs we could pick the best and avoid the genetic flaws, hopefully.
But in reality, we just played the numbers game and eventually it worked out. That was to get our second child. Trying for our third I had the late first tri loss after seeing a hb, and similar to yours they didn’t all end at the same time but I think the underlying issue is probably similar - the embryos aren’t genetically normal and the fail point just depends on what exactly happens (with the later loss I had a d&c so we know it was a rare trisomy).
I’m so sorry you have to make these hard decisions. We were ready to quit, I had finally gotten my heart there, when we got our final bfp last December (we couldn’t justify the cost of ivf for a third child so it was just a question of how long to play the odds). It was a hard mental process for me and I hope you find some good support in real life and on here as you work through it all. There are lots of us pulling for you
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