Prescribed progesterone privately due to recurrent miscarriage, now I'm pregnant - what should NHS be offering me?

[fingerscrossedmumma]

Hi all!

I visited a recurrent miscarriage private clinic earlier this year and they prescribed progesterone to me from ovulation. This record is not on my NHS record at all for some reason, but I was happy to pay for the private prescription.

I am now pregnant and I've heard that progesterone can be dangerous if there is. I indication the baby is growing in the right place? What should I be asking my GP to do for me?

As hard as it is, if you have gone private it is unlikely that the NHS will get involved at this stage. Are the miscarriages on your GP record? Did you get any sort of referrals for them on the NHS?
I had NHS recurrent miscarriage treatment. They prescribed progesterone from week 6 to week 24ish (I had it longer for previous developmental issues and a still birth). They did a scan but not until I think 10 weeks but it was through my recurrent miscarriage team. The GP/maternity service didn't / wouldn't do anything additional to the normal 12/20 week scans.

As previous poster says, you went private and so the NHS aren’t going to get involved at this point.

With private ivf you have to pay for own progesterone until they say to stop. So for my clinic it's 12 weeks. The nhs will not prescribe it even when positive test as it's been prescribed privately.

Local hosp will only pay is ivf is through them or if you go to epu with threatened mc and they put you on it - my hosp have signs up about a trial for it.

Thanks! This is really helpful as I read some horror stories of some people saying the progesterone should only be taken when the baby is confirmed to be growing in the right place (ie. Not ectopic) but I was told to take it by the private doctor from positive test! I wasn't sure if the NHS were supposed to offer extra scans or anything!

The miscarriages are on the record, but the progesterone use is not

Can your private clinic do a scan for you, to confirm location?

With IVF you take progesterone right from the start (before the transfer even) so all us IVF pregnant women have been taking in all along, usual advice is up until 12 weeks (some say to 8) but if you have bleeding it is sometimes right up to 16 weeks. So don't worry too much as there are many many women taking progesterone before anything is confirmed. But having said that, you might as well get an early scan either via the EPU or your private clinic to be sure. My local EPU will see women early if they have suffered previous miscarriages. That way you can also talk to a doctor about how long to take progesterone for.

It is a minefield jumping in-between private and NHS - which is what lots of us have to do with fertility treatment.

If you read on the infertility boards you will see lots of varied stories about how people got hold of progesterone, some GPs prescribe it while others don't and some people get it via EPU but others don't.

Good luck!

Another pregnant through NHS IVF, been prescribed progesterone pessaries, but there is no record of my fertility treatment on the hospital/GP medical records, apparently the systems don't sync up.

I was just told to tell my midwife at my booking in appointment what medication I was taking and that I conceived through IVF.

I'd image it would be the same for you, tell your midwife you are on progesterone at your booking in appointment.

To add, a friend who is successful pregnant after suffering recurrent miscarriages has no special treatment from the NHS, just standard 12/20 week scans.

Hey,
I had two miscarriages and the early pregnancy unit would only prescribe progesterone once a heart beat was confirmed at 7 weeks x

I had progesterone prescribed (and Clexane and high dose folic acid) to be used as soon as I got a positive pregnancy test. There was no mention of having to have any scan to determine viability first.

I used the prescriptions as directed. Luckily my EPU were very kind and knew I'd had 2 previous miscarriages, so they did two blood tests 48 hours apart to check my HCG levels were rising (to rule out - as best they could at that stage - that there was any ectopic) and I had a fair number of early scans. The pregnancy was confirmed as being in the right place by about 5 weeks I think, and I had a mix of private and NHS scans in the first trimester.

DD2 is now 2 and a half and a delight.

I had a similar worry about taking progesterone before a scan, but a GP friend of mine pointed out that it helps the baby grow by reinforcing the lining of the womb - if the baby isn't attached to the lining of the womb (ie an ectopic) then it won't do anything. So I don't actually think it matters if you take it and baby was an ectopic, I don't think it makes it grow anymore. But I could be wrong. How many weeks are you? And how many miscarriages have you had? My local (NHS) EPU is prescribing me progesterone (they said take from positive test) as I've had 3 miscarriages and they've been doing reassurance scans, but I realise not all places are the same. You could phone up your local EPU and see if they will do the same, if not I think you will have to continue with the private person you started with. They should be able to do a scan for you at around 6-7 weeks.

Don't worry about it before a scan. In ivf you take it from 2 weeks before embryo transfer and then up until 8 week scan.

If any ectopic symptoms you just go to early preg unit as normal