Self medicating progesterone

[NatGee]

I am pretty sure I am suffering from low progesterone - my cycles are pretty short, with a 11/12 luteal phase and in the 8 cycles we've been ttc, I had one in which I didn't ovulate and instead spotted for almost the entire month.

I am getting a little frustrated with my GP: my blood test has returned low progesterone at 1.6 nmol but was told the result was normal. I took more blood tests but they got lost and was asked to do them again

Time is of the essence and I dont want to waste any more of it, so can I get hold of progesterone and if so, which brands should I be looking at? Anyone else taking otc progesterone, if that is even a thing?

@NatGee I’ve always thought that it’s got to be prescribed but going private can get it easier and quicker. Was it 1.6 at 7dpo? If so that’s definitely low and suggests you didn’t ovulate so you may need something else like clomid to make you ovulate. My GP told me (when I had my test twice as I was so sure I had low progesterone and didn’t trust it) that the nhs consider anything over 30 (at around 7dpo) to be successful for ovulation and high enough progesterone for pregnancy

@allgoodthings84 thanks for replying - I didn't ovulate that month and knew I hadn't but went in for the test anyway. What annoys me is they told me its "normal" when its clearly not.
I went in for day 3 tests today and the result should arrive in a week's time at which point I was told to make an appointment to speak to the GP but should I just call on Monday and ask for a referral based on the progesterone findings and not waste my time anymore?

@NatGee I know my GP practice would request another 21 day test to be done before anything further in case it was just a one off anovulationery cycle. Then they would try clomid if the results are that low again. NHS don’t like prescribing progesterone unless you have 3 or more miscarriages.

@allgoodthings84 thank you, sounds like i have to go private then. Hope the bump is coming along nicely? Xx

@NatGee I bet they will prescribe it to you and a lot quicker. I’m 7 weeks now but constantly feel on edge. I’m not stressed but don’t feel like I can be excited after the last 2 losses

@NatGee hello, I know this is an older threat but wondered how you had got on with your GP?
Im in a similar situation of TTC after a chemical in December and a mmc in March. After my mmc, I seem to start spotting from about 7dpo but this month I starting to bleed for a few hours at 6dpo. It was fairly light (but bright red) and a little worrying.
I think it’s now time I make a GP appointment and see if I can get to the bottom of it.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks ☺️

@xxcxdonxx hey i am sorry to hear youre in a similar predicament. I never really got any answers, I feel like any in depth investigations would have to be taken up privately, in my case at least as I got nowhere
I did conceive the cycle following my original post and am now 28 weeks so my issue was likely not that of a short luteal phase.
I did everything I could in the meantime, take all sorts of vitamins, ate well, exercised and tried not to get stressed. if that helped or not, i cant know either.
Good luck and let us know how you go

Thanks @NatGee huge congratulations, that’s lovely to hear a positive outcome!

It’s frustrating to hear that you didn’t get anywhere with your Gp, I worry that I will be the same. Can I ask what vitamins you had taken? I’m on the seven seas ones that the moment but may need to up the ante!

Sure: I was, and still am, on quite a few of these: Wild Nutrition prenatals, omega3 fish oil, coq10, high dose vit c, vit d, did seed cycling, ate grass fed ox liver once a week and cut down on sugar. This was all after reading it all starts with an egg and Lily Nichols real food for pregnancy

maybe this improved my egg quality maybe it didnt

Also, unlike you, i hadnt been conceiving, but it sounds like you arent having the same issue.
Is there any chance you can get the two instances youve gone through looked into? I hope they take you seriously? Sorry that youre going through this, its a very stresfull time ttcing
Good luck !

@NatGee thanks again, I really appreciate you sharing and I’ll look into all
of these. I’ve been trying seed cycling this month too, normally I start to spot about 7dpo until Af but this month was bright red blood. Not sure if it’s related to the seed cycling or not, either was all a bit strange.

I’m actually TTC #3, my first two and my two losses were conceived very quickly so it’s been hard to get my head around where it has all gone wrong.

I’ll give the docs a call and see what they suggest to do, it really is a stressful time!

I’m interested to see what you find out and if you go for it as I’m in a similar position and I’ve been considering the same thing. I’m thinking I’ll get a home progesterone kit from Superdrug and do that this month then see what it says. I don’t have much hope of getting anything through the GP. It seems sad to say that but I think that’s the reality.