Progesterone.

I've been wanting to write a post about my progesterone in hopes that it will give hope to someone-because my progesterone has been less than stellar from the get go.

To begin, I was always told that they wanted to see a progesterone level of at least 11 to even consider the idea that I ovulated.  My numbers from the 4.5 years of being prodded and pricked have ranged anywhere from 4-12, usually around 5-7 though.

So, my monthly routine would often consist of me taking whatever meds the doctor prescribed (clomid, femera, hcg shots, prometrium, metformin, etc...) and then come in for an ultrasound series to see if I had a dominate follicle.  Prior to my surgery (ovarian wedge) in July of 2010, I had never seen a dominate follicle.  After my surgery, the medicine seemed to help and there were numerous times that a dominate follicle popped up during the sono.

Then, I would wait and go get my blood drawn however many days later to "see if I ovulated" and just about every.single.time I was told that my progesterone was too low and that there was no way I ovulated.  After hearing this, AF would show up not long after to reaffirm my not ovulating and we would put yet another cycle behind us.

But the thing is, I am realizing that even with a low progesterone read, it IS possible to get pregnant.  That's what happened to us.  My low progesterone number of 6.2 was a number that wasn't far from other readings that I had had in the past-you know, the times where I was told I hadn't ovulated-but it was my first lab draw at around 4 or so weeks pregnant.

Like I mentioned back in June, my old doctor was just going to "let us see what would happen" because surely with a low number like that I would miscarry (not his exact words but a close to it as you can get without saying it out front).

The point in all this?  My body does not produce progesterone worth a flip!  Even when pregnant!  I remember so many times reading other bloggers' lab results with their progesterone numbers being well over 20+ and yet still being told that it was low.

And yet, my low progesterone number of 6.2 did not keep me from being/staying pregnant.

Here we are, almost 33 weeks pregnant, and by the grace of God, the PPVI institute was willing to work with me and monitor my numbers throughout our pregnancy.

And just to give a better understanding of my progesterone numbers, here's where I've been throughout our pregnancy (if I'm missing a week it's because I forgot to write it down...eek!  I tried to be good about this though!!):

6/5 (4-5 weeks pregnant): 6.2
6/7: 8.6
6/12: 10.2
6/26: 14.7
7/10: 17.1
7/24: 21.1
8/6: 26.1
8/24: 33.2
9/10: 48.4
9/24: 57.3
****I have no clue where any of my October numbers are...all I do remember is that for some reason, that month, each reading was lower than the week before...and I freaked out of course.
11/8: 61.3
12/3: 69.4

And like I said, I'm missing some because when they would call with the results I would forget to write it down.  Overall though, my numbers aren't that great-even with 2 200mg progesterone suppositories daily and 200mg PIO injections 2X a week...my body just doesn't like to produce progesterone! 

I'm not just writing this out for me , so that one day I can look back and remember, but also, like I said, to hopefully give another PCOSer gal with stinky progesterone numbers a little bit of hope.

Because sometimes hope is all you've got when the going gets really tough.

I'm pretty sure most all of us know this by now.

I apologize if this post is all over the place and that overall it doesn't make the most sense, I just sort of word vomited out everything in regards to my progesterone.

I tried.

Now, off to organize bills (wahoo) and old mail that has been collecting on the desk...

“Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working.”