Did losing weight help lengthen your luteal phase?

[Covidcabana]

My luteal phase is currently 9-10 days and has been for the past 5 months during which we've unsuccessfully been ttc our 2nd child. With my first in the 5 months we tried I got pregnant 3 times (1 mmc, 1 early mc and 1 successful pregnancy) and my luteal phase was 12 days.

I've got a good chunk of weight that I need to lose. I'd lost over 3 stone just before lockdown but have piled most of it back on.

I've started b complex supplements along with my other vitamins to see if it helps.

I wondered if anyone had any positive stories of weight loss lengthening their luteal phase?

I just got my period yesterday and feeling a bit down so desperate for some inspiration!

Hi

I am in exactly the same boat as you so I am just intrigued to see what people say.

I can't tell you an inspiring story about weight loss lengthening luteal phase, because I didn't manage to shift a significant amount, but I did have a 10 day average luteal phase (sometimes 9, made it to 11 on one cycle) and got my BFP last Thursday. I know this was a big worry for me whilst trying so just wanted to show that it can happen with a shorter LP.

@Elakiya uch sorry you're in the same boat. It's come as a bit of a shock this time as the one saving of the miscarriages last time was that at least I was getting pregnant easily.

@queenatom huge congratulations on your BFP! Hope you're feeling well with it. Do you mind me asking how long you were trying for?

*saving grace not just saving

@Covidcabana so I've gone from not ovulating again to ovulating with a 10 day LP. I did get pregnant on it after 8 months of ttc!! but I miscarried at 6.5 weeks so back to square one. I had my first period since my miscarriage last week and my LP was 9 days! Was really hoping the miscarriage would lengthen it but it hasn't. I am religiously trying to lose weight but it will not shift :(. I will let you know if anything changes for me

@Elakiya I'm so sorry to hear about your miscarriage It's so difficult. I know I found the frustration and confusion of miscarriage really hard to deal with - and the physical/hormonal element of my cycle being all over the place drove me daft.

If it's any hope I conceived my 2 year old the cycle after my early miscarriage so fingers crossed for you.

I'm just going to keep trying with the supplements and make a proper effort to get some weight off again. I'll let you know if anything helps.

I'm just so frustrated and disappointed with myself for putting the weight on again (and for not tracking ovulation when we weren't trying as I don't know if the short LP is to do with weight or has been the case since I had my wee one).

@Covidcabana 11 cycles for us (9 calendar months as my cycle was so short!) We had a fertility work-up in January (bloods, an internal scan and SA for my husband) and it showed nothing amiss other than my thyroid levels being slightly sub-optimal. I was started on levothyroxine to bring them under control - I do wonder if this is what made the difference for me.

Best of luck - hope you get your BFP soon!

@Covidcabana yh the miscarriage was so heartbreaking.

The worst for me was 1) it was so painful! Everyone i spoke to said it’s not meant to be physically painful but mine was extremely painful.

2. I saw the remains of that pregnancy leave my body 😞

3. I bled for a week stopped there was a gap and then I bled again! So drawn out!

I have also gained 3kg over lockdown which has made be go from overweight to obese really trying to focus.

What supplements are you using? For short LP’s you can get progesterone. But if you want to try naturally I think they say seed cycling can help with LP’s?

@queenatom ooo that's really interesting about your thyroid levels.

Best of luck for the rest of your pregnancy!

@Elakiya aw love, it sounds like you had it really rough. I hope you're being kind to yourself and being well looked after.

Seeing the remains is very difficult and I'd say for me was one of the very tough things about the missed miscarriage (I had to go for medical management as my body just wasn't letting it go). They asked us what we wanted to do with the remains beforehand but that element still never really sunk in for me until I was confronted by it.

I'm currently using high strength folic acid, pregnancy vitamin, high strength vitamin d, bites and b complex. I'm rattling

I had heard you can get progesterone creams but not looked too far into it yet.

Thanks you so much for the tip on seed cycling. I haven't heard of that so I'm off to do some research!

@Covidcabana Definitely worth getting them checked if you haven't already as they can really affect fertility and also miscarriage risk if not properly managed. The ideal threshold for those TTC and during pregnancy is a lot lower than the level that's acceptable in the ordinary population - TSH should be below 2.5 and ideally as close to 1 as possible. My levels when initially tested were 3.1, so well within the general reference range but higher than ideal for TTC. A low dose of levothyroxine did the trick.

*vitex not bites. Bloomin' autocorrect.

@queenatom that is so useful, thank you. I had my tsh levels tested in Jan-20 and they were 3.23. I might see if my gp will agree to test again since I'm ttc.

@Covidcabana Definitely worth asking. Here's a link to some NHS guidance that states the 2.5 level for TTC: www.uhb.nhs.uk/Downloads/pdf/PiPregnancyThyroid.pdf

@queenatom I just wanted to say a huge thank you. The information you gave about thyroid gave me the guts to phone for a doctors appointment. I had the appointment this morning and I'm to go for blood tests.

Hope you have a great weekend!

No problem, @Covidcabana, hopefully you'll get some answers! Have a great weekend.

Hi all,
Just wondering how you are getting on? My thyroid levels have come down from 8 to 3.9 in the last 8 weeks so hoping it won't be too much longer until my BFP!
Any advice greatly appreciated!

I lost a bit over a stone and took my BMI down to 25. Made zero difference to luteal phase