Low progesterone & cyclogest when to take?

[Sara1003]

I had a 28 day cycle and typically ovulate leaving only a 10 or 11 day luteal phase.
Should I take cyclogest for low progesterone to help or is this unnecessary? I am age 40 so feel like I am running out of time. Thanks.

There's basically no evidence to suggest that progesterone supplementation in natural cycles helps conception rates at all, even with a short luteal phase - low progesterone is generally a symptom of a wider issue and progesterone supplementation doesn't fix whatever that issue is. For that reason you'll likely also struggle to find someone prepared to prescribe it.

If you really want to try it, it likely won't hurt, but I wouldn't place all your eggs in that basket (so to speak). You'd be better off having checks to confirm whether your progesterone actually is low and speaking to your doctor about ovulation induction medication as an option - I also have a short luteal phase and this is the route that's been suggested to me as even if you ovulate naturally, OI medication can result in 'better' ovulation.

Thanks @queenatom really helpful answer and sounds like you have wondered the same thing as me in the past.

I have indeed, and in fact did try progesterone for a couple of cycles - it lengthened my luteal phase very effectively, to the point where I wouldn't start bleeding until I stopped taking it, but I didn't conceive using it and ultimately I felt that all I was doing was artificially adding the best part of a week onto each cycle and not really tackling the root cause of the issue. I have a letrozole prescription on it's way waiting for next CD2 to hit.

Best of luck!

@queenatom that's really helpful. I didn't realise it messed up your cycles. If you don't mind me asking did it take a long time to get period after stopping the cyclogest. Thanks.

@Sara1003 I wouldn't say it messed up my cycles, per se - your period is triggered by progesterone dropping when it becomes clear that you aren't pregnant, so if you're supplementing that won't happen until you stop. It took 3 days for my period to start after taking my last suppository - my instructions were to test at 14DPO and stop if negative, so my period arrived on 17DPO.

@queenatom thanks for this, much appreciated really helpful.