11 Weeks - Progesterone Freak Out

Ugh. I'm having a bit of a freak out over progesterone. As I've mentioned, I had a natural FET with this baby. This means no estrogen priming, so no hyperovulaton to leave behind lots of corpus luteum cysts to produce progesterone.  Just one, naturally ovulated egg. I also skipped progesterone in oil, which is easily measured in the blood stream and greatly increases progesterone levels. For me, it's been just Endometrin suppositories which don’t show up in your labs since it's absorbed directly by the uterus.

My progesterone has been increasing pretty consistently at a "low normal level" as my pregnancy progresses, which the RE has been happy with since the transfer was natural. With PIO, they'd be looking for levels over 20 early on and a big jump when the placenta takes over. As you can see, the biggest bump I've had was 16.6 a couple hours after I'd put my progesterone in.

I am supposed to be weaning off the Endometrin since I'm 11 weeks today but my labs at 10w5d showed my progesterone was only 15.4. I would have thought that my placenta would have taken over and be producing progesterone on it’s own by now, but it’s not making the jump. The RE isn’t super concerned since this is still technically the lowest side of normal and my estrogen is increasing, but I am freaking out. There's all sorts of studies suggesting that "91% of pregnancies with progesterone lower than 15 ng/ml will end in miscarriage" (source) and "Average progesterone in pregnancies that miscarry is 14 ng/ml; in healthy pregnancy: 32 ng/ml" (source). I'm terrified that my levels are low enough to endanger our otherwise perfectly healthy baby.

I know some women just have lower progesterone but I don’t feel ready to stop the Endometrin without a real increase.  I only have 1 day of Endometrin left and I just don't feel good about stopping. 

Progester-Woah!

I went in for my progesterone draw this morning, fingers crossed that my progesterone decided to climb, at least a little. We had to go in early since the lab closes by 9:30am on Saturdays and I was moving extra slowly from the lingering shadow of a migraine. I had a feeling some head aches would be forthcoming from the hormones I started yesterday and they certainly didn't disappoint. After this many medicated cycles, it's pretty much a guarantee that high estrogen and progesterone will give me at least one migraine within the first 12 hours.

Still, I made it there in time and was finished with the draw in just a few minutes. I had gotten home, put in a new Endometrin and changed my pad (ew - I got lucky yesterday with a clean pad but last nights pill pretty much dissolved and fell out this morning. GROSS) and started prepping breakfast when the phone rang with results.

By today, they're looking for your progesterone to be 8 or above. Since mine was only 1.5 when they were looking for 2.0, I was a little worried it might still be low but all that anxiety, and the chocolate bunny head I ate, were for nothing! The nurse immediately said my progesterone looks great and told me my level was 15 today! This officially clears us for our Tuesday transfer and we're now just waiting on the lab to assign us our official time. Only 3 days to go until our frostie is home!

Gratuitous photo of Milou that a fellow agility student took today. Look at my lady rocking that tire :)

Endometrin Again

Today's appointment was a quick one, just a single vial blood draw to check out my progesterone levels. Unfortunately, it looks like my numbers are just a tad low, they like to see a level around 2.0 and mine was only 1.5. This isn't a setback though, it just means it's time to start my Estrace and Endometrin as scheduled to boost it up a bit. It is rising as it's supposed to, it went from 0.7 to 1.5 with ovulation and since I haven't taken any hormones until now, that was entirely on my own steam.

 Still, it's time for a little extra support so as soon as I hung up the phone with the nurse, I swallowed my Estrace and popped in an Endometrin tablet and snapped on cloth panty liner. Then I rushed off to acupuncture for my weekly needles and nap session. I'm gearing up for the transfer with S as well, I did my last regular heat clearing and energy moving session today and will see her again Monday where she'll prep me for the embryo by improving blood flow to my uterus.  I'll be seeing her or her associate D on Tuesday after the transfer as well to help our little frostie stick.

Please don't kill my panty liners Endometrin...

Since this little babe IS going to stick and I'm going to be taking Endometrin for the next 10-12 weeks, I'm curious to see how my liners hold up to the assault. I'm trying out an all cotton flannel liner today and I'm thinking I might strip it with dish soap or something similarly grease cutting afterward, just to prevent any of the medication medium from affecting the absorbancy of the fabric.

My next check in is tomorrow to see how much my progesterone has gone up in 24 hours. My poor little arm, the tech can still only draw from one vein so it's taking a lot of abuse. This brings the FET calendar to two more days of Medrol, three more days of the Z-Pack and aspirin, and hopefully 10-12 more weeks of the Endometrin and Estrace to look forward to.

TWW: We Meet Again, Endometrin

This morning marked the beginning of Endometrin round two. Oh most hated adversary, we meet again at last. I knew this day would come.

dun Dun DUN!!!

I know that this particular medication shouldn't be a big deal, it's not an injection or something particularly painful, but it's still, by far, the most obnoxious medication I need to take. Let's run through the side effects according to the manufacturer:

• mild nausea, vomiting, bloating, stomach cramps;
• diarrhea, constipation, bloating;
• dizziness, drowsiness, tired feeling;
• pain in your vaginal or rectal area;
• pain during intercourse;
• loss of interest in sex;
• breast pain, swelling, or tenderness;
• joint or muscle pain;
• increased night-time urination; or
• vaginal itching, burning, or discharge.

If you look carefully, many of these symptoms mimic early pregnancy symptoms. A super cruel joke to play on the woman who is desperately hoping to find out she's pregnant, examining every cramp and hiccup as a possible indicator that this cycle was a success. Others are just horrible sounding, and I count myself lucky that I only experience the mild ones. Last cycle I had to deal with bloating, cramps, tiredness, all the time peeing, crazy sore boobies, and the lack of sex and general grossness that comes with having a pill up your ladybits that dissolves throughout the day, necessitating the wearing of panty liners. Can we saw EW? EW.

At least my injections were a brief inconvenience, a moment of pain that was mostly gone in under a minute.  Twice daily Endometrin, on the other hand, is the gift that just keeps on giving. For a minimum of two weeks, and a maximum of 10 weeks if I do get pregnant. This is one medication I could seriously do without, if I wasn't willing to do anything possible to get and stay pregnant.

Little cells that should be dividing in there, this is all for you. E, I apologize for the lack of sexy time in your future. Only 8 more days till I can pee on a stick and hopefully find out that we're pregnant (if it's not too early), making all of this worth it. I can't give headspace to the next leg of our journey if we are successful, so I'm focusing everything on that positive test. 

Update: I took an HPT this afternoon and got a clear negative, which means the trigger is flushed out of my system. Any positive we get should be genuine from here on out!