If you would like to add your story, please visit our contact page. If you are comfortable with it, please include your name, age, the state that you live in and your treatment. We do not and will not post e-mail addresses or any kind of contact information. If you e-mail us your story, we will post it to the site unless you tell us otherwise. We plan to share all the valid e-mail stories with researchers who may be interested in helping to strengthen the awareness of this problem.
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#101, submitted December 13, 2007:
My name is April and I am 22 years old. I live in Missouri. I had a miscarriage in August of this year. My Doctor whom I had just begun with took action right away. Over the next two months following the miscarriage he analyzed my progesterone levels and my waking temperature. (The waking temperature has a normal cycle throughout a womens entire 'month' and if a women has low progesterone those patterns are much different. You can learn more about that by learning Natural Family Planning.) My doctor found I was low in progesterone and so I have been receiving injections (2cc's in each hip twice a week) since week 2, even before our pregnancy test showed a clear positive. I have had a lot of irritation at the injection site including numbness, itchy, pain and generalized irritation. I found that ice helps the best and if the pain gets too bad i consent to tylenol. I am now 12 weeks pregnant with a very healthy baby. It is not the ideal pregnancy for me but without the progesterone I wouldn't be pregnant
#102, submitted December 16, 2007:
I can't tell you how glad I am that this problem is becoming more known. I have suffered probably 6 miscarriages due to low progesterone. My first 4 were because I was with a large OB practice. I was in my early 20's and my OB didn't seem too concerned that I was losing babies. I kept telling them that something didn't seem right and they finally sent me to IVF. After several rounds of chlomid and painful tests, they couldn't find anything wrong with me. Too bad they never checked my progesterone levels. I lost all my babies between 4 and 8 weeks. My last straw with this large OB practice was when I had gotten pregnant after all the IVF treatments (and I gave up on those) and several miscarriages, I got a positive pregnancy test. I called my OB and they said, "we'll see you in 8 weeks." I couldn't believe it. I explained my problems and they said that that was protocol. I was so upset and talked to my sister-in-law who recommended that I see her OB. After stupidly waiting 1 and 1/2 weeks I called her OB. When I started to explain to the nurse my history, she got very anxious and said I needed to be seen right away because it sounded like I had low progesterone. They saw me the next morning and sent me for blood work right away. By that night, my new Doctor called me and said it didn't look to good. My HCG and progesterone were lower than they should, but she had me go on the progesterone suppositories right away. It was too late though. I miscarried the next day.
The good news is that since then I have had 2 beautiful baby boys. I was on progesterone suppositires twice a day for the first 10 weeks with each.
I am 29 now and unfortunatley, I just suffered another miscarriage though. I didn't even have a chance to get on the progesterone. I had a firm positive pregnancy test on a Sunday. I called Monday to go get my levels checked and they were already so low that my Dr. said I could expect my period at any moment. I got it the next morning. It was pretty frustrating because I just didn't even have a chnace to get on the progesterone. I know it works for me if I just could have a chance to get on them. I am looking into possible starting to take some type of herbal supplement that helps your body produce balanced hormones. We'll see though. I'm so skeptical of things like that.
Thank you for this site and letting me share my story. This problem is so huge but for some reason, it seems to be a big secret. This will be great to get the word out.
Thanks again.
Sandy
#103, submitted January 3, 2008:
My husband and I have been trying to conceive for 3.5 years and I just got a positive pregnancy test right before Christmas. I believe I may have had one or more early miscarriages in the past but none were confirmed with a positive test. Talking to my mom shortly before becoming pregnant she mentioned that she has had low progesterone her whole life and it caused her problems with conceieving both myself and my younger brother, and she also had several miscarriages. She said I should have my level checked. My husband and I had been tested for infertility and they said they hadn't found anything wrong. I assumed that was one of the things they would have checked, but maybe they didn't. Maybe I would have been able to conceive much earlier if they had checked it sooner. When I told my mom I was finally pregnant she told me to make sure they tested my progesterone level. I went for my first prenatal visit and talked to my CNM about my concerns and about my mom's history. She told me they don't normally test that, but she would "just to set my mind at ease". Thank goodness she listened to me - 3 days later she called me and said she had gotten my results and my progesterone level was low - and that she was very surprised. She called in a prescription for progesterone suppositories for me to start right away. I have only been on them now for 4 days, so I am hoping it is working. I don't go back for my next appointment for another week. I just wanted to share that there seems to be a possibility that this problem could be hereditary, at least in my case. I have read that low progesterone can also cause problems with conceiving in the first place and it irritates me that this all should have been discovered a long time ago for me since we went for fertility testing twice! I think you are correct that the medical community needs to realize that this problem is more common than they realize and take it more seriously. Test progesterone as part of infertility testing and test all pregnant women as soon as possible to avoid the potential heartbreak of a miscarriage if at all possible.
Thank you for this website. You may post my story if you'd like.
~Jessica
#104, submitted February 5, 2008:
I became pregnant in June of 2006, only to lose the baby at 5 weeks.....a month later the same thing happened. No one ever checked my progesterone, but I had heard about it......so, my doctor said she would check it as soon as I was pregnant next. I conceived in December of 2006 and my doctor checked my levels immediately. They were 17, and she said that was good, but I was so scared and nervous, she said she would give me the progesterone suppositories anyway. I took 50 mg twice a day (vaginal suppository). At 9 weeks I had bright red bleeding and was sure I lost the baby. They did an ultrasound and the baby was still alive! They checked my progesterone and it was only 13....the next day it was only 12.....so she upped my dosage to three times a day. I'm happy to report that I had a healthy baby girl in August of 2007...she did come 5 weeks early....due to my premature delivery, my doctor said I will take progesterone suppositories up until 36 weeks for my next pregnancy as this has been shown to reduce the chances of preterm labor. I am a HUGE believer in progesterone and I know that I wouldn't have my baby girl without it!!!
Allison
