Question for ARGC patients

[geeup]

Hello. I am about to have my first FET at a NHS clinic (not ARGC) who don't test your progesterone before transfer. After two cycles where I bled early, understandably I am concerned about my progesterone levels and want them tested before transfer and a week later (to see if they're dropping) like private clinics like ARGC do. My lovely GP surgery has agreed to test them.
My question is, when ARGC test your progesterone before transfer and in your tww, what level are they looking for (I heard 100ng/ml) and is there any advice re time of day for testing that you are told? Ie if I take my progesterone medication at 8am, and take the blood test at 10am will it actually tell me my levels or will it just pick up my last dose? Many thanks in advance.

Argc like really high progesterone - in my FET there I was over 150 but under 200 and they were having me take 2 pessaries and 2 vials of the progesterone oil injected in. They would deffo want it over 100 but as I say I think most other clinics would not have you on such high progesterone meds.

As for time of day i don’t believe it matters.
What meds are you being prescribed? Will they do the progesterone oil for injecting? That will give you the highest levels but it’s very expensive so probably the nhs will say they won’t pay for it. Would the doctor write you a private prescription for it?

I having Lubion which is progesterone injected subcutaneously (so not the oil one). Hoping it does the trick. The clinic told me they don't recommend combining with pessaries but I have a few left over from a previous cycle which I'll use if here's any sign of blood!

That’s good news you are injecting it, your levels should stay much higher than using the pessaries.

Fingers crossed it does the trick!! I wish they'd believed me after my first cycle failed and I bled early - I asked for more progesterone for my second cycle but they said it wasn't necessary

Good luck for this cycle Gee.

I'm planning to ask my clinic about progesterone dosage too as my previous day 21 levels were quite low, consultant said they dropped off quite quickly.
It just would be a shame for a cycle to fail in thay alone. Hoping it's third time lucky for you.

Ah thanks @JeNeBaguetteRien it's so hard as my clinic are very conservative and understandably say they know best and the progesterone suppositories are more than enough etc etc but you get desperate to just try something else and it's tough when you have a hunch that it's something particular. I just hope something bloody works - I don't care who is right!!

Hi Geeup, not sure if this answering your question but I’m just learning a bit more about progesterone levels in the first part of your cycle (so I’m referring to the testing before transfer part of your question). I’ve had 2 failed cycles this year and my progesterone levels pre ovulation (tested on the day of trigger in stimulated cycle and 2 days prior to ovulation on the FET cycle, so the same equivalent) were 9 and 8 nmol (not sure in ng but you can convert online). I was at Serum and they don’t look at this, however, my consultant at home thinks it was too high and has told me the Lister clinic won’t do a transfer if your levels are higher than 4nmol on the day of trigger. I would be willing to bet that ARGC are similar. You can take steroids to keep it low from the start of your cycle. This progesterone is completely unrelated to the progesterone produced and the levels rising in the second half of your cycle.

The reasons behind the testing is that if the progesterone is too high pre transfer it can throw off your receptive window and therefore by the time the embryo is put back, the window of opportunity had already passed.

Wow that is interesting @closephine85 and I'd never heard about that. I'm too late to test for that this cycle but definitely one for me to find out more about if this one doesn't work again. How are you doing? Sounds like you're at the lister now?