I know I should be trusting the meds to keep my period at bay but tomorrow is my period ‘due’ date in my natural cycle technically if I was to have one, but had positive tests since yesterday. I’m on progesterone and I had my levels checked the day before transfer BUT I’m paranoid 🙈 the reason I’m worrying is because on one of my transfers prior I started to bleed the day before my OTD, so worried the meds won’t support this enough.
Will my body have started producing progesterone on its own already anyway? At what point will my body naturally start doing that to help support the pregnancy? Or is it too soon for that to happen?
Will get my progesterone rechecked hopefully on OTD provided my tests are still positive but in the meantime this is all unknown territory for me! X
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PrincessGurn1984
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If you ovulated naturally then the corpus luteum (empty egg follicle) will be producing progesterone naturally and the natural hcg produced by the implanted embryo will keep this going. The progesterone you are taking is simply supplementing this. My clinic often do completely natural FETs with no added progesterone at all.
Thanks this is really helpful to know! I guess at some point once it implants whether it’s fresh or frozen your body as to do it’s own thing and start to also produce progesterone in addition to the meds x
Actually it's only in a natural cycle this happens - in fresh cycle the follicles are completely drained during egg collection which means there is no corpus luteum to make progesterone. That's why we are all given progesterone for every fresh cycle. And in medicated cycles no ovulation = no natural progesterone production. I know this as I looked it up after freaking out at how many hormones they were giving me!
It seems to vary between clinics. When I got my BFP I was told to stop progesterone and that was obviously only at 4 weeks. I was anxious about it but they assured me my body could take over and so far it seems it has done. Good luck xx
It’s so interesting hearing the varying guidance from different clinics! I guess in natural pregnancies there’s no meds at all is there! The body does what it does x
And as far as I always understood it will completely depend if you had a stimulation cycle aka fresh cycle or a frozen embryo transfer (FET medicated).
If you had a fresh cycle after egg collection the ovaries will be producing progesteron as you had multiple follicles (even if drained, naturally you will only have 1, while with IVF you have more producing it) and progesteron is added support but can be stopped earlier on from 4-12 weeks which seems to vary between clinics.
If you had a medicated FET, ovulation was stopped so your body will not produce progesteron. Even after implantation the HCG will continue to go up but progesteron will still need to be supplemented till the placenta takes over and it will start receive progesteron through your blood supply. This is between 8-12 weeks but many prefer to continue till 12 weeks to be on the safe side.
You can’t really have to much progesteron therefor in most cases if in doubt, continue taken it to avoid problems in early pregnancy.
I hope that helps but as always, do ask your clinic as they know exactly your protocol and meds etc!
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