Good luck at your Dr appt hun!
let us know how it goes!

Ya, my heart sinks when people ask that question. Some days it seems more than others...

ha, well i'm so young that ppl always tell me 'don't have kids yet!' and that kinda sucks too. when everyone around me is telling me not to have kids and i'm secretly trying to....

but my cousin had a lot of early miscarriages and when she was trying to get pregnant a few years ago she carried around progesterone with her, and so she found out she was pregnant on a cruise and started taking it immediately. now she has a precious two year old son :)

so i definitely think it could help

I've heard about the progesterone cream. I'm taking Vitamin B6 and Vitex and I heard it helps with Luteal Phase Defect. Are you using the progesterone cream?

How short IS your luteal phase? Maybe the length is just fine.

To piggy-back on the advice of May485, you could try the herbal route. I would maybe try that before going the hormonal route. The positive aspect of that is that it treats the whole mama - not just our reproductive organs. Since everything is connected, that might be all that's needed (if there's anything out of balance at all).

Apart from the Vitex that she recommended, you could also try red clover blossom, nettles and red raspberry leaf. This stuff all comes in tea-form. In fact there are probably blends of these available. I would also include a good prenatal vitamin made from whole sources. Synthetic prenatals are made by isolating the one component that is cheap and easy to obtain. But the whole is usually better than the sum of its parts - just as eating an orange is better for you than taking vitamin C tablets. Some brands of prenatals made from whole food sources are like Baby and me...Rainbow Light...etc.

Final note: I'm so sorry about the losses, including the loss of the ovary. This stuff is a tough road for a lot of us :( I went through two miscarriages before finally having a successful pregnancy and I know there are women here who've gone through a lot more.

What is the luteal phase? I'm sorry, I'm very new to all of this and am just curious :)

The luteal phase is the part of your cycle AFTER ovulation (the first part, before ovulation, is called the follicular phase). You often hear about the luteal phase because if it's too short (as in, less than 10 or so), the lining of the uterus is shed in a menstrual period before there's a chance for a fertilized egg to implant properly. So, women who are charting also watch the length of their luteal phase.

Unlike the first part of the cycle (the follicular phase) which can vary in length (sometimes by a lot), the luteal phase is really very consistent - between 12 and 16 days, generally. It's also the phase of the cycle that's dominated by progesterone (think, 'pro - gestate) and so you will often seeing women talking about progesterone in relation to the luteal phase - to support it. Another clue that there's a 'luteal phase defect' is several days of spotting leading up to your period.

Doctors will very often prescribe progesterone supplementation once ovulation has passed or early in a pregnancy if there's a history of miscarriage.

So sorry about the insensitive people at your DH's work! That is really painful when you are trying and trying! Fertility gave some great advice! I used several herbal supplements the month before we finally got our BFP, including Maca and FertilAid & FertilCM. I also did Nettle Tea and Evening Primrose Oil and a few others.

As far as progesterone, they should test your levels after you ovulate and see if you need supplementation. My Doc checked every single day with blood draws to see if my body was producing enough. Since it was not, I am on vaginal suppositories of Progesterone 2x day AND injections of it!!

Thank you so much for clearning that up for me! I'm now really curious to see how long mine is!

To quote FertilityFlower: "Another clue that there's a 'luteal phase defect' is several days of spotting leading up to your period."

I typically have brown spotting before my regular red cycle begins. My doc said that is just the previous months cycle leaving your body. So, what do you mean by spotting, exactly?

Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with us!

Hey there, what I mean re: 'spotting' is - like you say, brown blood...you typically wouldn't need a pad and would probably just notice it when using the bathroom. With that said, you really would only wonder if you were having days and days and days of spotting - as in a week or more leading up to your period. That would typically be something to check out. If it's a couple days before your period that you're experiencing some spotting, don't pay that any mind. It's nothing. It's the corpus luteum breaking down and the subsequent fall in progesterone. Does that make sense?

Yes! Just wanted to double check! Thank you :D

This has been very interesting....

Although I am coming off a Chemcial Pregnancy so it was different for me....first time I ever had about a week of brown spotting then red. I had also tested positive for the pregnancy both on the stick and with bloodwork at that time. Finally got the full blown red flow after 5 days of that nasty stuff.

Good luck figuring it all out! My body still amazes to confuse me!