Experiences with progesterone & TTC

[midwifeandttc]

Hi everyone

A bit of background: I am mid/late twenties and TTC for 6 months. I had my Mirena coil removed in August 2020. Pre-coil, my cycles were bang on 28 days with 5 day period. Since removal, I am spotting dark brown from cycle day 24-25 with period starting usually on day 27. Shamefully, even as a midwife, I had no idea really about cycles, luteal phases and such! I am convinced I have low progesterone due to the spotting I get, meaning if I count from spotting my luteal phase is only 9/10 days.

I am in the fortunate position where I have been able to have a full scan of my womb, ovaries and also having bloods to check my progesterone and FSH. I'm due to get my progesterone bloods next week when it is day 20 of my cycle to see if they are low. When I went for my scan, it showed a lovely big follicle that looked as if I were hours away from ovulating, which was reassuring. My endometrial lining (womb thickness) was also good, think it was about 10 or 11mm on cycle day 13. I then got a static smiley on clearblue the same day as the scan.

Anyway, my question is, has anyone had success with obtaining progesterone pessaries or similar privately if low progesterone, without being referred to fertility services?

(Ive also introduced B6 and Vitamin C)

Any stories/advice much appreciated...

Personally I would start looking into herbal remedies as a first instance. My sister (also a midwife) recommended Agnus castus to me to naturally regulate my hormones after coming off HBC to ttc. It really helped me a lot.
I was on progesterone from BFP onwards, not ovulation, so can't comment on this but I wouldn't take it 'just incase'.

@NoCallerID Hi, thanks for that. Have heard about AC but also heard it’s pretty potent stuff. I would never take medications unless medically indicated (ie. proven low progesterone) but really helps to hear your experience. Thanks for sharing :)

@midwifeandttc it really depends on the dosage you take. From my experience I started with the 400mg fruit that I bought off Amazon and it helped a lot already. I regulated my cycles post pill from a random 42-79 days to around 34-39 days and it lengthened my LP from 11 to 13/14. I conceived first cycle trying (after avoiding with FAM for 6 months). Same again when conceiving #2 (which ended in a TFMR).

Then last year I did some more research into it and found that you're actually supposed to take a lot more, I'll copy the link below.

julietocallaghan.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/agnus-castus-and-pms-dont-buy-it-from-boots-or-holland-barrett-if-you-actually-want-it-to-work/

On private prescriptions - no success in the UK. I had asked several times as it's easily prescribed in Germany (where I'm from) but they said the only way I could get it was through a fertility specialist, since I was three early miscarriages down I was finally referred to a recurrent miscarriage clinic and the first thing she offered was progesterone from BFP. My GP wouldn't even do the progesterone blood test. (Didn't help anyway as I had an infection from the TFMR which caused the miscarriages...)