Well I'll give it a go silver but please remember these are just the things I've picked up here and there and I am defo not qualified at all - .
The first half of your cycle is oestrogen dominant, this hormone makes your body ovulate.
Once ovulation has taken place progesterone takes over as the dominant hormone (hence the temp rise).This is your luteal phase and can be anything from 10 -16 days long.
Progesterone is responsible for thickening up the womb lining ready for any possible embryos you may have created to implant.
If you get preg your corpus luteum (a kind of shell the egg came out of) continues to pump out progesterone to maintain the womb lining until the placenta takes over at about 12 weeks.
With me so far????
Ok, well some people find that their progesterone levels are a bit low and just as the embryo might be thinking about settling in, their temp drops and their period arrives. Adding progesterone MIGHT extend the luteal phase slightly and give the embryo more of a chance.
I don't really know why I am taking it cos when i was pregnant recently my progesterone levels were obviously fine cos my embryo managed to implant and even though I did MC the feotus only got to 8 weeks but i continued to maintain the pregnancy for a further 3.5 weeks and in fact the lining still wasn't coming away hence why i chose to have a procedure to remove it once i knew the feotus had stopped.
I think i'm taking it to cover all my bases. The consultant I saw after my MC said the cream would do no harm but he COULD NOT confirm it would do any good.
I think becuse of my age I just want to make sure I have a decent LP to allow for implantation.
The only thing people have said that can be bad about it is that it MAY sustain a pregnancy that wasn't meant to be, for example the pregnancy may be destined to only go to 5 weeks and by using the cream the woman could hold on to it til 7 weeks (just random example dates).
I have thought about this but then that's what happened to me naturally anyway. If I get another BFP I've been promised early scans so i guess it will be evident if that feotus has stopped. IYSWIM.
I had a great chat with someone on here back in december called elusivemoose and she had just used it for the first month and got a BFP, she wasn't sure whether to keep using for the first 12 weeks. She said her temp had dropped and she had been spotting but the cream had seemed to stop her period arriving. I've found her on the august anti natal thread and her pregnancy is doing fine. She used the cream til week 12 and she feels it helped her little one have time to settle in at the begining.
You use an 8th of a teaspoon (the size of a garden pea) morning and night. You rub it into somewhere where there is fat like your thighs your tops of arms, boobs, belly etc. You must alternate places. And most important you MUST be sure you have ovulated before you use it. The average dates to use it are day 14 - day 28 but of course I started using it sooner.
That's about it. Hope you haven't nodded off reading this and once again - I am not medically qualified so please don't take all this as defo - I am an old bird and i do get confused sometimes but I think it's a pretty good guide.
ps. My temp was really high this morning but I think it was cos HD was still in bed with me. He's usually got out of the bed by the time I take my temp. Either to get ready or cos he's snoring so loud i've sent him to the spare room .
I wonder if it's possible for another person (who is always bloody hot) to effect your temp. Toni doesn't mention it in her book.