Hi ladies,

I know there have been posts about this before but wondered if anyones going through it at the moment.

I suspect i have a progesterone deficiency as get heavy spotting on and off for up to a week before af and get all the abdo bloating etc etc

Im going to have the 3 and 21 day bloods done to check but just wondered what can be done to help? Ive read about b vitamins and stuff but its all so confusing. So desperate for a bean after our loss last year and it just seems that one thing after another is going wrong for us

Doctor wont help me AT ALL until ive lost weight. This in itself is a huge task as I need to lose 5 stone to get my bmi under 25, though looking at me i dont actually look or feel morbidly obese!!! My sisters are both heavier than me and have 6 kids betwenn them

Any help would be appreciated, thankyou xxx

Hi BabyBubbles,
Sorry for your loss x
I have a progesterone deficiency - low post-ov temps and a short lp. I started going to a Traditional Chinese Medicine centre for acupuncture treatment, on the advice of 2 friends who used acu to fall pregnant. TCM is amazing - looks at the reproductive system in a very different way to western medicine. It works out what the imbalance within the body is and restores the balance so you can conceive. The imbalance will be a weakness or a blockage. You have to leave everything you know about western medicine at the door.
My problem is weak kidneys and spleen and a cold uterus - you see what I mean?! I'm having weekly acupuncture sessions (£35) and little tablets (£8.50) and have had to make changes to my diet - it's really starting to work!
The medical establishment acknowledges that acu works but can't say why.
There's a wonderful book by Randien Lewis called The Infertility Cure, which fully explains TCM and gives all sorts of advice for helpoing yourself. It has a tool for diagnosing yourself and dietary advice and pointers to what chinese herbs to use. If you decide to try TCM make sure you find somewhere that specifies it works on fertility.
I started a thread in TTC with some other girls - The Really Useful TCM Thread. Check us out to see what we're all doing.
Good luck!
Abi x

100mg of B6 daily can be helpful in stimulating and balancing hormone production, as well as helping healthy beans stick

In the road to discovering my cycle probs I had blood tests on days 3,5,7,9,11 dpo to determine what was going on over a good window of time, within a critical part of the cycle. We were also using temp charting and cm signs to back up temps.
I have a luteal phase defect which means low progesterone, and was treated with 1500iu hCG injections after ovulation (3,5,7.9 dpo), when af came just repeated following cycle, when no af by 18dpo peed on a stick and was a true positive (as all added hcg was out of my system). On the same day as positive test I was started on 200mg of plant derived progesterone injections, as well as 5000iu hcg injections, both twice weekly. I have bloods every two weeks to monitor progesterone levels, which dipped a little about 6 weeks ago so I have been put on 200mg progesterone pessaries nightly as a booster.
Hopefully finishing hCG injections at end of week 16, progesterone healthy but on the low side so I'm continuing with that for as long as needed.

Hopefully this makes sense, I know everyone is an individual but maybe it could offer some useful info for you! Best of luck!

Hiya, I had possible low progesterone and took 400mg pessaries every night from a few days after ovulation, and when I conceived continued with it (and will do til 12 weeks). As well as hormone levels a scan of the ovaries can show whether the corpus luteum is breaking down too soon after ovulation.