Progesterone pessaries - should I?

[LauraPalmerish]

I'm confused about whether or not I should take the cyclogest progesterone pessaries my GP offered to prescribe me and I'm looking for some experiences and/or advice to help me make a decision.

My backstory: I've had two MC - one at 10 wks last July (after seeing a heartbeat at 8wks) and a 2nd MC at 6 wks in November. We were taking time off of ttc to but we were very lucky and got a BFP on June 1st. Have had one early scan (@ 6+ wks) and everything looked good - strong heartbeat, nurses and sonographer happy with size, etc. And I'm booked for another early scan on July 10th (@ 9+ wks).

In the interim, my GP contacted a recurrent-MC consultant on my behalf to answer my question about taking 75mg of aspirin daily (which I've been doing anyway since my BFP). Today GP called me to discuss the consultant's suggestions, one of which is to start taking cyclogest for the next 4-5 weeks until I get to the 2nd trimester. They are also going to test my blood for clotting issues.

Here's the catch: because I've only had 2 MCs and was never officially referred to the consultant, I've not had any tests done before now. This means that I would be taking the progesterone without knowing if I really need it or if it would help in any way. It's very possible that we've just had bad luck with 2 MCs in 6 months.

That said, I wouldn't want to not do something that might mean a happy outcome for my much-wanted little grublet.

Can anyone share their experience or knowledge of progesterone?

I've recently used cyclogest pessaries but for fertility treatment rather than recurrent MC. For IVF they tend to be used as precautionary measures as the procedure may mean less progesterone of produced naturally so I can't imagine they'd be much harm as a precaution.
I found them fine, made me a bit bloats but a lot of that were side effects from fertility treatment. I found them better up the bum than fanjo, sorry if TMI

FWIW a friend has suffered several miscarriages and been referred, they have so far found no obvious reason and so in the next pregnancy will put her on aspirin and progesterone pessaries even though these haven't been found to be the definite cause.

I'd definitely take it. As Fatima says, it's given routinely to people undergoing IVF (including myself; twice) as a precaution. Other than the fact the suppositories are messy bastards to deal with (top tip - take as soon as you wake and once in bed in the evening if you need to take x2 per day - you need to lie flat for 30 minutes IIRC), I don't recall any side effects and in fact was so concerned that a lack of progesterone might have been responsible for my first cycle not working that I requested a higher dose the second time around.

Congratulations on your recent pregnancy btw :)

I'd take it. My second child is an IVF baby (born after three long years of secondary infertility and several miscarriage) so had progesterone suppositories prescribed as a matter of course.

I am now pregnant (naturally, though have had a couple of failed IVF cycles since DS2 in an attempt to have a third child) and due to my MC history I asked my IVF consultant if it would be possible to prescribe progesterone for me. Which he did - his letter basically said that for a natural pregnancy it would probably not make a huge amount of difference but would certainly do no harm and therefore he was happy to recommend - and so I'm now on progesterone twice a day till 2 weeks. I just feel I'd like to do everything I can to try to ensure this pregnancy works out OK...and taking the progesterone gives me a little extra peace of mind.

Re actually inserting the suppositories - I've never had to lie down after insertion but my top tip would be (and sorry this is WAY TMI but there you go) to do front door (ie vaginally) in the evening and back door (ie bum) in the morning. You do get a certain amount of leakage unfortunately but I find this way it minimises leakage during the day...

HTH

sorry above post should read till 12 weeks!

and yes - congratulations on your pregnancy

I had a mc last summer - then this year, January I fell pregnant again. My gynae put me on Cycogest pessaries up until 12 weeks.

I felt a lot happier having them even though they are a bit of a hassle. I new then, that my hormone levels were good and that I was doing all I could do.

I am now 25 weeks!

Good luck x

Thank you for all of your responses (and your congratulations) - 'tis much appreciated.

There seems to have been a unanimous positive response and there's no reason not to take it. Have discussed your posts with DP (as well as some of the awkward side effects ) and he's in complete agreement, so I'm going to contact the GP today to sort out the details for getting started on the cyclogest.