What should hormone levels be day of ovulation? Progesterone from blood test says I may have ovulated?

[Latetotheparty38]

Hi ladies,

Does anyone know what your hormone levels (lh, progesterone, oestrogen) should be day of ovulation?

After 3 failed IVF attempts I’m trying ovulation induction. Daily 150 Gonal f. The nurses assured me that I would be monitored and they’d tell me when to have sex and when I was close to ovulating but didn’t!. I went in for a third scan and blood yesterday (Friday) and they called in the afternoon to say I have “started to ovulate” I’m furious as could have been having sex prior so the sperm was up there waiting. I’m worried I have missed the boat.

I had sex 3 times yesterday but was told that sperm that is 5 days old isn’t the best so first shot not great and no time to replenish sperm.

Bloodwork:

Oestrogen 1759

Lh 22

Progesterone 4.9

Two follicles one 19 and 16.

Did I ovulate that morning or today Saturday? I don’t know what they mean “started to ovulate” does that mean the egg is out.

Hope you can help, I’ve been trying to google but no luck and can’t trust the clinic as pretty incompetent not to advise even as a precaution to start intercourse.

Thanks so much

Nat x

[AuroraXen]

Nat I'm sorry I don't know the answer here in terms of levels but just wanted to say I completely get why you're put out here. Like you say, you'd expect to be told when ovulation was imminent rather than after the fact. I'm also not sure what the precise definition of 'started to ovulate' means here 🤔 but then I haven't had any assisted ovulation treatment so it's entirely possible I don't know what I'm talking about! You're right, sex before ovulation is usually best but sex on the day of ovulation also yields pregnancies I think, so try not to despair xx

[Latetotheparty38 in reply to AuroraXen]

Thank you xx

[Purpledoggy]

Based on your LH I think you are more likely to have ovulated today, assuming you ovulate 36h after LH surge (which not everyone does) but it’s a little hard to know if your LH was on the way up or down with a single sample. Do you do BBT charting? It’s retrospective but can help to pinpoint ovulation. My clinic advise abstinence for 2-5d before IVF so you might be fine with 5 days. Also if your man has a decent sperm count 24h is plenty of time to replenish (for guys with high DNA frag 24h is recommended anyway) Xx

[Latetotheparty38 in reply to Purpledoggy]

Thank so much! Do you know what LH levels are at the surge?

[Purpledoggy in reply to Latetotheparty38]

LH varies quite a bit by person. Almost all studies looked at urinary rather than blood, but they should be a good approximation to one another.

Urine: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Blood (this is the best I can find - the numbers seem kind of on the low side relative to the urine concentrations): urmc.rochester.edu/encyclop...

The upshot from the urinary study is that LH alone won't tell you precisely when you ovulate, but you also have ultrasound and I am going to guess what they meant by 'starting to ovulate' was that everything together meant you were just about to. Your progesterone is low but not at a pre-ovulation level, which I think is also why they said ovulation was getting going, but I am afraid I don't know exactly how they interpret the progesterone in terms of ovulation in the next few hours versus ovulation a few hours ago etc. xx

[Latetotheparty38 in reply to Purpledoggy]

Thanks so much for your help! X