Questions about how to diagnose suspected low progesterone and details about progesterone supplementation

[Anonymous]

We have been TTC with recurring early pregnancy loss. Based on reading the books recommended on dcum and a lot of searching about other women's experiences, it seems like low progesterone is a common cause of early pregnancy loss, and I indeed do seem to have a lot of the symptoms (possibly shorter luteal phase, frequent headaches).

My job also predisposes me to have high stress, although I have figured out how to relax and just let go of things more during the past month or so. I am guessing that there is some latency from enacting such changes to seeing the effects on my hormones (ditto with diet improvements, which my husband and I have also done).

The other possibilities raised in books about dealing with recurrent loss seem more unlikely, although we will still test for them in the upcoming weeks. Also, from reading dcum it seems a lot of women do fix their early pregnancy loss issues by supplementing with progesterone. What I haven't seen explained enough is how those women and their doctors diagnosed the issue, and what symptoms / signs were indicative / contraindicative of this issue.

So TLDR, how do you diagnose low progesterone? Is supplementing with progesterone a blanket recommendation if you have early pregnancy loss, with the other tests (phospholipids, balanced translocations) turning up negative? Can supplementing be harmful, other than the seemingly annoying side-effects? Once you get placed on supplemental progesterone, what method did you use? Do you start using it during the luteal phase, or only after a positive pregnancy test, or even earlier?

Thanks to all of you for your experience/knowledge in advance.

[Anonymous]

Great questions but I think you should find a more populous fertility forum! A good friend is finally six months along after self diagnosing and self treating low progesterone (after multiple early losses)—she is in Europe, if you can, I’d definitely do this under doctor’s supervision!

[Anonymous]

This happened to me. I had a miscarriage and then could not seem to get pregnant. After I started the progesterone, I got pregnant immediately with no special method required. I don’t remember any side effects.

I’m not sure how it was diagnosed, but I’d been trying to get pregnant by taking Clomid and that was not working.