Progesterone levels after FET

Does anyone know what your progesterone level should be at the time of and after a FET? I take 4 prometrium capsules a day. The clinic preferred I do the PIO shots, but agreed to let me do the suppositories. And I'm supposed to have my hormone levels checked every three days to see if they are high enough. My levels the day of the transfer was 11, today it was 9. I'm very worried it's going down. Does this mean I can't possibly be pregnant/won't get pregnant/or won't stay pregnant if I do? It just seems like if you aren't making progesterone levels naturally and have to force them back up with meds that may or may not work, you're doomed.

They're having me add 2 more capsules a day and I go back fri for another blood test. At that point I may just give in and do the PIO injections, and pray I can handle giving them to myself.

I did a little reading to figure out why I'm doing all these blood level checks when I never had this done with my fresh cycle. And when I asked the nurse she wasn't sure, since the protocol I've done for this FET is so rare, and she said they don't really even have levels to compare to because they never usually check. I guess the only time they do is when they do a lupron trigger instead of an HCG trigger (which I had), and that's to decrease the risk of hyperstimulation. That's the reason they gave me the lupron trigger in the first place, to make hyperstimulation less of a possibility (I produced a lot of follicles, and since they let me go so long to try to get the lining to cooperate, they got pretty large). So now that I'm reading about the lupron trigger shot, it also says you must boost up the hormones afterwards, to get the levels back up and able to sustain a pregnancy. So now I see why last minute they told me to start 3 estrogen patches every other day along with the progesterone (and were again recommending the shots). I'm not sure I would have agreed to that route (lupron trigger) had I known there was more risk of it not working or miscarriage if it does because of hormone levles. And now that I know the reason behind all these hormones they have me on, and that it's different than a standard cycle, I probably would have agreed to do the PIO from the beginning. But I guess I have to trust their judgment, and the Lupron trigger was the best call at the time. I can't help but think they made that call when my lining wouldn't get past a 5 and they probably thought it wasn't going to work anyway, so why risk hyperstimulation on top of it. It wasn't until a re-check for fluid right before the transfer that we were surprised with a thick lining and that's when they rushed to get me on more meds. And it's funny (or not funny) how I was so mixed with my feelings on what I wanted to happen, but now that I know there's a potential life inside me I don't want to lose it!

Has anyone experienced using a Lupron trigger instead of an HCG, have you had issues with estrogen/progesterone levels after? Does anyone know what they should be at this stage, and if they are not there does it mean I don't have a shot?

 

I don't know the answer to all your questions, but did want to say the suppositories supposedly don't show up in the blood numbers (from what my RE told me) bc the progesterone goes directly to where its supposed to. I think personally if there is any doubt that you in your heart think the PIO shots could be more effective...go for it. I did those for the first 15 weeks with my pg. I felt like that was my best shot (no pun intended) of getting a successful pg. Good luck!!!

 

This is a good point. I swore I heard that somewhere too in the past. I mentioned it to the nurse who called and told me to up the prometrium and she said she wasn't aware of that. Now that you're mentioning it too, I'm going to do some research to be armed with tomorrow. It's possible they're not even thinking about it, since this is an unusual protocol and they don't really test progesterone anyway. But still, I'd think this would be pretty basic.