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You DEFINATELY have Luteal Phase Defect. This is a GOOD thing to know. You are one of the lucky women that progesterone supplements are proven to help. Make sure you start taking them on day 18 of your cycle (get your Dr. to give you prescription). Then you take a pregnancy test on day 28. If it's positive you continue taking the supplements until about 12 weeks. If it's negative, you stop the supplements and your period starts within a week. If you have no other problems and are not unlucky and have a "bad luck" one time chromosomal misfire, you have an EXCELLENT chance of having a healthy baby.

You DEFINATELY have Luteal Phase Defect. This is a GOOD thing to know. You are one of the lucky women that progesterone supplements are proven to help. Make sure you start taking them on day 18 of your cycle (get your Dr. to give you prescription). Then you take a pregnancy test on day 28. If it's positive you continue taking the supplements until about 12 weeks. If it's negative, you stop the supplements and your period starts within a week. If you have no other problems and are not unlucky and have a "bad luck" one time chromosomal misfire, you have an EXCELLENT chance of having a healthy baby.

Dear Erin, THANKS SO MUCH for your mail. It was so nice to read your mail. I hope what you say is true. I went to see the doctor on friday, she wasn't very helpful and is resisting referring me to a specialist. She says that women don't ovulate every cylce(as you get older-i am 31) and if you don't ovulate your progesterone will not go up. My cylcle this month was 45 days long! my temp peaked at day 37 but the test was done on day 29. do you still think it may be lpd?

Leah, I am 38 and pregnant with my 3rd child and my doctor said that as a woman gets older her body begins releasing more than just one egg at a time during ovulation in preparation for menopause (since we are born with all of the eggs we'll ever have). If you're having a period each month, then you're probably ovulating each month. You're still very young and well within what is considered to be your "child bearing years". Maybe you should remind your doctor of this and tell him to quit treating you like you're forty-something and trying to get pregnant.

Leah, yes I do... My LPD tests have not come back yet, but my doctor doubts that I have it because my periods are regular 30 days... Irregular cycles are more likely to have it... Although I know a woman (37) who did have it and had regular cycles. She tested at 5 at 21 dpo....

Sorry, I meant to add that my friend after 2 mcs was diagnosed with LPD and using progesterone had a little boy. My cousin was also diagnosed and had 2 children with progesterone. Seems to me that it can work! Wish my problems were that straightforward... As for ovulation, I am 37 and have gotten pregnant three times this year, every time I tried except once... Unfortunately all miscarriages... But I sure do ovulate.

Hi- I had written earlier that I've had 2 miscarriages and was on progesterone, etc. I'm almost 37. Now I have another dilemma. Had the AFP test, and was called the next day. I have a greater than 1 in 10 chance of the baby having trisomy 18. I've done alot of reading and I know its fatal...90% miscarry, the rest die shortly after birth. It makes me wonder...with my prog. at 14.5 to start should I have miscarried instead of taking progesterone. Looking up studies for that now. I also know there is a false positive possibility for this test, and have to go Nov. 3rd for the ultrasound, and amnio which I wasn't planning to do, but now I must. Has anyone had a similar experience? How did it turn out? I am sooooo hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. Thanks.

Kristina, I don't know what to tell you, except I'm sorry you are in this situation. Did your Dr test you for Luteal Phase Defect before giving you progesterone (that would have been before you were pregnant). I was sure I had been miscarrying (2x before) due to low progesterone, even though I was never tested. When my prog. level was 12 at 5 weeks, I INSISTED that my doctor give me prog. supplments. He did so, reluctantly, telling me if the pregnancy was destined to fail, it would... Well, even after seeing the heartbeat at 8 weeks, an ultrasound at 10 weeks revealed the pregnancy had ended. I had a D&C. The doctor thinks I have a chromosomal problem (going through all the tests now), and that the progesterone "masked" the problem and caused me to hang onto the pregnancy for weeks longer than I would hae (all my other mc's are at 5-7 weeks, no hearbeat, or even an embryo). If you are destined to mc, you will soon if you are off the progesterone now... If the pregnancy doesn't mc, then the progesterone wasn't keeping it going unneccesarily, and you would be in this situation anyway. In fact, maybe you do have LPD, and the progesterone was needed. You can have a compound chromosome and progesterone issue, because chromosomal problems increase as you get older, no matter what your prog. level.... I am 37, too, by the way and have had 4 mc's, three this year. I had one little girl 8 years ago, after a mc. You are right the AFP is often wrong. My doctor doesn't even perform it on women our age because so many women get false alarms. They just do amnio, which is definitive, or cvs if you prefer and your insurance covers it, but you are too far along now for that... I think you are just going to have to be strong until the amnio (they can do it as early as 16 weeks - insists you get an early appointment, don't wait until 20 weeks). Things may be just fine and this is all a false alarm.

Hi Erin- Thanks for the response. I now have an appt. for this Friday but they said that they have alot of cancellations, so I may be able to go as early as this afternoon. Thats interesting about progesterone. I was not tested beforehand for LPD. I have been off the progesterone for a few weeks, then had doc appt. last Wed., and we heard heartbeat and doc said everything's perfect. I sure hope that bloodtest was wrong. I will write back when I get results. I appreciate your concern.

Many women are not tested before pregnancy for LPD, because the only sympton is recurrent pregnancy lost. Women will ask and some doctors will prescribe progesterone when a woman who has miscarried becomes pregnant again, just in case that is the problem, because if it is, progesterone supplements are an easy fix...

I really hope your test results were wrong and they frequently are. I know that won't stop you from worrying, so I hope you get than amnio as soon as you can. And that all is fine...! If this is your first time on progesterone and your first pregnancy that has progressed, you may well have LPD.

Kristina, It is very common to get a false positive reading on the AFP test (especially at our age). Your doctor will probably want to run some more tests before jumping to any conclusions, though. He will probably recommend a CVS or an amnio. I would opt for the amnio since it's not considered to be as jnvasive or dangerous and is also more fool proof. Try not to worry yourself to death thinking about it until you're able to get some more conclusive results, because chances are very good that it's nothing. Good luck to you!

Just want to update everyone that I heard the HB yesterday for the first time since getting off the progesterone. It was going strong. We find out the sex in 5 weeks. I am now 14.5 weeks. Just a testimony that progesterone does work.

I think I had somthing similar to that but I'm not sure but when I started to spot I went to emergancy right away and was there for eight days.

That is interesting about the progesterone and synthetics. After trying the cream, pills, and finally the suppositories, I was still having a crazy-painful reaction I decided to risk the miscarriage and stop the prog all together. It has been a week now with no supplements. I went in this morning for another US. The heartbeat was 160 and the baby looked like a little flipper with arm paddles and everything. I am excited but not too excited yet. I am still nervous about miscarrying. I haven't had any spotting and feel nauseous. They say the sicker you feel the better. Odd. I haven't done another blood test to see what the prog. levels are. I will ask next time I go in. I have had so many US's, nearly one or two a week. Is this safe? Does everyone have this many?? Thanks for the info.

Cole, That's Great News!!! It sounds to me like you didn't really need the progesterone, afterall. You should consider yourself very lucky to be getting all of those ultrasounds. They're perfectly safe and it's a great way to start bonding with your baby. I'm 15 weeks and am classified "extremely high risk" and have only received one US so far and that was done in my 6th week so all we saw was a sac and a heartbeat, but nothing that really resembled a baby. I go in two weeks (November 10th) for a nuchal translucency test. This is done using the new 3D-4D imaging, so I'll actually get to see the baby's facial features and everything ( That is, if she'll look at us). I'm sooo excited!! Also, we just might get to find out the baby's gender. My husband wants a girl. Wish us luck!!

I am now 6weeks and 5 days pregnant. This is my 6th pregnancy. I have had a total of 4 miscarriages. Last year I had 2 missed miscarriages. This time we are taking every precaution and I am doing the 100mg of progesterone supplements 2x a day. I just started having a brownish discharge a couple of days ago, and last night I started to bleed. I have a doctors appt. tomorrow, but already am expecting the worst. My husband and I just want to have a healthy pregnancy and baby. I don't know what is wrong with me.