Progesterone blood test - feeling distraught

[Plumchumm]

Hi everyone,

I'm a bit beside myself. I have a luteal phase of 14 days normally, never had issues with spotting or short LP. I have been doing LH strips to catch ovulation, and I believe I did as I had my usual symptoms and a positive test, and my usual luteal phase changes the very next day after ovulation. I have used LH strips successfully for pregnancy before, so am very experienced with this.

However as the days went on, my usual sore boobs didn't come, I started second guessing myself so did a progesterone blood test when I was 7dpo. Of course a few days later my sore boobs finally did start (9dpo), but I did get my result back from that blood test and it looks like my progesterone is super low (11.4 nmol/L)

It needs to be at 30 to even support pregnancy. How can this be so low? I have never had issues with spotting or anything before and have had a healthy pregnancy before.

I have also done a few monitored cycles with my fertility clinic so have done multiple scans for multiple cycles, and my endometrial lining is usually very thick, etc.

What does this mean??? I have spoken about possibly getting progesterone supplements but every doctor I've spoken to says I don't need it. My fertility doctor has worked in the NHS for 30 years in the recurrent miscarriage clinic and he keeps saying progesterone levels before 6/7 weeks is not important, as a healthy egg would always produce enough.

Did your period arrive 7 days after the blood test?

I have no advice unfortunately but I will say I have had 4 miscarriages. My progesterone levels were 'borderline' but other than that they couldn't see much else wrong. So I went on progesterone pessaries from day of positive test and my 22 month old is currently napping whilst I am 14 weeks pregnant. All of my miscarriages were between 6 and 8 weeks so I definitely don't agree that it's irrelevant before then. I think it's irrelevant past 12 weeks when the placenta takes over.

Try agnus castus research red fertility/low progesterone

Hi everyone, thanks for responding. I had a scan and it showed what could be a haemorrhagic cyst. Apparently low progesterone could show on blood tests because of this. Otherwise my lining was thick (8mm) and I’m on 11dpo without a bleed. So hopefully my progesterone is overall okay.
i have asked for progesterone before but my fertility doctor keeps telling me it’s only relevant after I get a positive. So annoying. How did you manage to get it? @BudgetBuster x

Have you had day 3 oestradiol bloods ?

Not for a long time. I have pcos so not sure if it would show much? I ovulate regularly but usually around day 20-21. :)

I got it from the recurrent loss clinic, but only ever took it after a positive.
But I know for IVF, it's taken regularly and they stop if they don't get a positive.

You may want to look into oestrogen dominance-if you have high oestradiol on day 3 then it’s true oestrogen dominance. If you have within range oestradiol but much lower progesterone on day 21 it’s relative oestrogen dominance.
It can be hard to deal with but is possible. For years I was misdiagnosed with PCOS due to it as my ovaries had a cystic appearance i also had a bulky uterus, adenomyosis, heavy clotty periods . I’ve needed huge lifestyle changes plus progesterone supplementation for luteal phase to address the imbalance

Ahh thanks :) @BudgetBuster x

I had a scan yesterday and it showed my lining was thick, and stable, and apparently confirmed progesterone was doing it's job. I have randomly begun my period today on 11dpo (my luteal phase has always been 14 days). I think from everything I've seen, I likely ovulated much sooner and didn't realise, which would put me actually at 14/15dpo and my progesterone blood test taken at 10/11dpo. x

@Dontbeadoormat i may do a oestrogen test soon! I actually just got a bunch of tests to do from Thriva as I hadn't done my hormones in a while but didn't add estrogen. thank you x