Pregnant - Low Progesterone

[greenmama29]

Hello! I am 31 years old and have a 3 and 5 year old-- both were easily conceived, carried, and delivered. My levels were never checked for these pregnancies. In August 2012 we tried for a third baby. I got pregnant right away but had a chemical pregnancy. We did not wait to try again and the same thing happened the following month. We stopped trying after that, but I found out to my surprise almost 2 weeks ago that I am pregnant. I had blood work down and though my hcg is rising very well, my progesterone is very low. My doctor prescribed progesterone supplements, but I don't feel comfortable taking them. I am looking for an alternative to prevent miscarrying due to low progesterone. Have any of you taken progest-e during pregnancy?? HELP!

Also-- I am hypothyroid and currently take Tirosint 125.

 

[Blossom]

I haven't been pregnant in 24 years but if I were I might consider taking an equivalent amount of progest-e to the progesterone tablets your doctor gave you. For example if the pills are 100mg you could use approximately 33 drops of progest-e. That's just an idea. I used to have doctor prescribed progesterone and I think progest-e works better. I'm not pregnant though. Everyone is afraid to give advice to pregnant people.

 

[j.]

If you take progesterone, take progesterone, not a progestin. I think progeffik is real progesterone, it comes in 200mg pills.

 

[Blossom]

Your pharmacist should be. able to tell you if it's bioidentical progesterone or not. I took bioidentical progesterone that I got from the compounding pharmacy and I still think progest-e works better for me which is probably due to the vitamin e and triglyceride base enhancing absorption. I agree with j about staying away from progestin completely! Someone on the forum mentioned Ray Peats mother receiving a synthetic progestin when pregnant with him and he felt it adversely effected his own health. It could be due to imprinting of the stress response like with excess estrogens.

 

[j.]

Your pharmacist should be. able to tell you if it's bioidentical progesterone or not. I took bioidentical progesterone that I got from the compounding pharmacy and I still think progest-e works better for me which is probably due to the vitamin e and triglyceride base enhancing absorption. I agree with j about staying away from progestin completely! Someone on the forum mentioned Ray Peats mother receiving a synthetic progestin when pregnant with him and he felt it adversely effected his own health. It could be due to imprinting of the stress response like with excess estrogens.

It's hard to measure a "drop" of the Progest-E, since it's so sticky if you keep it in the fridge. I used both Progest-E and also one called Progeffik, which I mixed with vitamin E, and felt it had very strong effects after taking fractions of a pill. The progeffik I think is also used vaginally, as the 200mg dose orally might be too intense to take orally, if I recall correctly.

 

[greenmama29]

My OB said she would call the compounding pharmacy about bioidentical progesterone.... would it be a cream?? I am so unfamiliar with all of this. I just know that if I decide to take anything I want it to be truly safe.

By the way.. these were my levels

4 weeks 1 day - p 8.66 hcg 200
5 weeks - p 7.5 hcg 4091

 

[Blossom]

It sounds like if your OB is willing to call the compounding pharmacy she/he knows what you need. Progesterone by mouth is supposedly better absorbed as compared to the cream. I have no data to back this though. It seems Ray Peat chose the oral mucosa route due to thinness of the membrane and rich vascularity which leads to rapid absorption and any swallowed is absorbed through the GI tract. That's a good point about the measuring of progesterone e. I would think room temperature storage would be fine if your using a high dosage because it isn't likely to go rancid in a week or two. The bioidentical orally sounds easier though for accurate dosing.

 

[HDD]

I wanted to see what Peat said about supplementing during pregnancy, so here are the quotes I found.

Nutrition for Women

Fertility
Avoiding anti-thyroid foods, increasing use of eggs and milk; also, possibly liver with thyroid, progesterone (especially when miscarriage is threatened), magnesium, and vitamin E.

Precocious Babies

...Factors which help to maintain blood sugar, including good diet and hormones such as thyroxin and progesterone, help to produce big, healthy, large brained and precocious babies.


And a Peatarian quote from a thread on the forum-

"Have you tried progest-e-complex? In 10 of 10 cases that turned out to be the 'missing ingredient' since estrogen is usually the obstacle to a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. Have you read Ray Peat's article on eclampsia? "


There is some helpful information about estrogen/progesterone in the eclampsia article.

http://raypeat.com/articles/aging/eclampsia.shtml

But the simple chain of causality has many lines of feedback, exacerbating the problem, and the nutritional problem is usually worse than a simple protein deficiency. B vitamin deficiencies alone are enough to cause the liver's underactivity, and to cause estrogen dominance, and a simple vitamin A deficiency causes an inability to use protein efficiently or to make progesterone, and in itself mimics some of the effects of estrogen.

Anything that causes a thyroid deficiency will make the problem worse. Thyroid therapy alone has had spectacular success in treating and preventing eclampsia. (H. O. Nicholson, 1904, cited in Dieckman's Toxemias of Pregnancy, 1952; 1929, Barczi, of Budapest; Broda Barnes, who prescribed thyroid as needed, delivered more than 2,000 babies and never had a case of pre-eclampsia, though statistically 100 would have been expected.)

 

[Blossom]

If you opt to use progest-e and would prefer to refrigerate it you could measure it out at room temperature to desired strength into a measuring spoon and then for future doses you could use the same spoon but not need to count individual drops.

 

[aguilaroja]

Disclaimer: This is for discussion purposes only and not to be construed as medical advice.

I am only conveying my experience knowing a few others who have used Progest-E supplementation in pregnancy. These sets of couple have been older parents and in common medical practice would be considered "high risk". They each had uncomplicated pregnancies and deliveries. Their infants and children have developed in a healthy way.

My experience is that bio-identical progesterone, the Progest-E complex (in vitamin E oil) has been best. The Progest-E has been rubbed into the lips and gums, rather than swallowed. If that is not quickly available, then one of the bio-identical progesterone compounded creams may be used in the interim.

The progesterone level of a menstrual-cycling female adult produces 20 mg of progesterone per day. This seems like the LOWEST end of what might be used if someone is going to supplement. That amount would be about 6 or 7 drops of the Progest-E oil.

Progesterone levels in pregnancy are considerably higher so there are bases for using higher amounts. The doctor testing levels for you may have some reasoning for how much more.

Tirosint is a levothyroxine (T4) thyroid supplement. You can read in Dr. Peat's work, these forums, and other places that many people seem to do better including both major thyroid hormones, levothyroxine (T4) & liothyronine (T3) rather than only T4.

 

[Kelly]

Your pharmacist should be. able to tell you if it's bioidentical progesterone or not. I took bioidentical progesterone that I got from the compounding pharmacy and I still think progest-e works better for me which is probably due to the vitamin e and triglyceride base enhancing absorption. I agree with j about staying away from progestin completely! Someone on the forum mentioned Ray Peats mother receiving a synthetic progestin when pregnant with him and he felt it adversely effected his own health. It could be due to imprinting of the stress response like with excess estrogens.

It's hard to measure a "drop" of the Progest-E, since it's so sticky if you keep it in the fridge. I used both Progest-E and also one called Progeffik, which I mixed with vitamin E, and felt it had very strong effects after taking fractions of a pill. The progeffik I think is also used vaginally, as the 200mg dose orally might be too intense to take orally, if I recall correctly.

1/8 teaspoon = 50 mg progesterone.