Progesterone is a female hormone produced by the ovaries, adrenal glands, and the placenta during pregnancy. Progesterone helps prepare the lining of the uterus to receive the egg if a sperm fertilizes it. If fertilization doesn't happen, progesterone levels drop and menstrual bleeding begins. [1]
During pregnancy, the placenta produces high levels of progesterone, starting near the end of the first trimester and continuing until the baby is born. Levels of progesterone are about 10 times higher in a pregnant woman than they in a non-pregnant female. Moreover, some types of cancer cause abnormal progesterone levels in both men and women. [2]
Why Are Progesterone Levels Measured?
A progesterone test is done to help find the cause of infertility, monitor the success of medications for infertility or the effect of treatment with progesterone, determine whether ovulation is occurring, and assess the risk of miscarriage. Progesterone tests also help diagnose problems with the adrenal glands and some types of cancer.
If your doctor found it necessary for you to have a progesterone test, you should stop taking medications, including birth control pills, that contain estrogen or progesterone or both, for up to 4 weeks before having the test.
You should also tell your healthcare professional if you have had a test that used a radioactive substance within the last seven days. Some tests, such as thyroid or bone scans, use a radioactive tracer, and that can interfere with the test results. Let your healthcare professional know the first day of your last menstrual period and describe your menstrual bleeding pattern: whether it's light, does it begins with spotting, when it's the heaviest, and anything else they may ask.
You should also talk to your health professional about any concerns you have regarding the need for the test, its risks, or what the results might indicate.
How is the progesterone levels test performed?
The healthcare professional will wrap an elastic band around your upper arm to stop the flow of blood, which will make the veins below the band larger, so it will be easier to put a needle into your vein. The doctor should clean the needle site with alcohol and then insert the needle into the vein. He or she might need more than one needle stick. The doctor will attach a tube to the needle to fill it with blood and then remove the band from your arm when he collects enough blood. After this, she will apply a gauze pad or cotton ball over the needle site as the needle is removed (you should apply pressure to the site) and then a bandage. [3]
For a woman having problems with her menstrual cycle or problems getting pregnant, more than one blood sample may be necessary for progesterone testing to help identify the problem. It is the best to take one sample each day for several days in a row.
Progesterone In Pregnancy
The progesterone levels in early pregnancy ordinarily double or triple during the first several weeks when a woman is pregnant.
The body should produce progesterone every day during pregnancy, while in the regular menstrual period progesterone produces at ovulation and for about 14 more days.
To protect the fetus, the progesterone levels during pregnancy then rise to as much as 10 to 15 times of their average amount by the third trimester. In other words, the progesterone levels during pregnancy can be as high as 300mg to 400mg per day. [2]
For women trying to become pregnant, an adequate amount of natural progesterone is crucial because this hormone prepares the uterine wall for the implantation of a fertilized egg. Low levels of progesterone and early pregnancy can result in the loss of the embryo or miscarriage. The progesterone levels in early pregnancy have a significant role in maintaining a pregnancy during the first months, so it is important for you to discuss your progesterone levels during pregnancy with your doctor. [2]
During pregnancy, progesterone prevents the premature shedding of the uterine lining, which is to say that any drop in progesterone levels could result in the loss of the embryo. Miscarriage is a well-known unpleasant fact for too many women, and it very commonly happens during the first trimester. As a mode of "treatment" to threatened miscarriage, physicians will often prescribe progesterone either in the form of oral or vaginal tablets. When the placenta forms, it will produce most of the progesterone during the last two trimesters of pregnancy. [4]
Pregnancy is a powerful physical, emotional and spiritual experience for a woman. As a pregnancy progresses, the placenta must produce an ever-increasing amount of progesterone until the birth of the baby to support the fetus and the health of the mother. In fact, during the third trimester, the placenta will be creating up to 300-400 milligrams of progesterone per day. This amount is ten times the usual amount of progesterone produced during ovulation. It, therefore, comes as no surprise that after the birth of the baby and the loss of the placenta, progesterone production and levels drop very suddenly and very drastically.
Applying a natural progesterone cream can help keep body levels of progesterone high during pregnancy, which is important just in case there might be a shortage in the mother’s system — this is why doctors perform progesterone levels tests in the first place. Moreover, after pregnancy, applying a natural progesterone cream can be very helpful in keeping the signs of postpartum depression at bay.
There are different medical and non-medical symptoms among the very early signs of pregnancy among women. For some, very early signs will mean the only faintest physical signs, which are almost undetectable to any but the woman herself.
During pregnancy the effects of estrogen are enlarging the uterus and the genitals, stimulating the milk glands and enlarging the breasts, increasing blood volume by 30%, and causing fluid retention.
During pregnancy, the effects of progesterone are: stimulating the growth of the placenta, stimulating the growth of cells that feed the embryo and preparing the breasts for milk production. [5]
When using a natural progesterone cream, all you do is apply it directly to your skin, and from there it is absorbed into the underlying fat layer. Then, the progesterone can be absorbed into the blood stream on a continuous basis, as the body needs it.
Sometimes doctors suggest women use this cream from conception to delivery, applied primarily to the abdomen, breast, lower back, and upper thighs. These areas of the body are the best because there it will prevent the skin from stretching, which is a common problem in pregnancy.
For the first two trimesters of pregnancy, you should use an average of one-half to three-quarters of a teaspoon, 2-3 times a day and during the last trimester, apply one teaspoon 2-3 times a day.
Discontinue at delivery and resume at one-quarter teaspoon twice per day beginning one month after giving birth.
Natural progesterone cream is extremely useful for post-partum depression, which is common for many women after childbirth.
Synthetic progesterone is safe for most people when used by mouth, applied to the skin, applied into the vagina, or injected into the muscle with the advice and care of a healthcare professional. However, sometimes it comes with the additional price: the side effects. [6] Progesterone can upset your stomach, change your appetite and cause weight gain or even body swelling. It can be responsible for skin breakouts and can even cause allergic skin rashes. Fatigue and drowsiness or insomnia, and even headache or fever are progesterone's second name. That's why the tiredness is common at the very beginning of pregnancy when progesterone levels start to rise, and that's why there is a slight spike in body temperature during ovulation. Progesterone can also cause typical PMS symptoms, like depression, breast discomfort or enlargement, or even altered menstrual cycles, irregular bleeding. Of course, your doctor should not advise you to use progesterone if you have arterial disease, breast cancer, depression, liver disease, or undiagnosed vaginal bleeding.[6]
What are very early pregnancy signs and symptoms?
Some women can detect the moment when they experience ovulation, although many women cannot tell exactly. Some women can also recognize when their fertile period of the month has ended. Similarly, some can detect the moment they have become pregnant. For others, one of the standard medical tests is the only reliable way to discern the very early pregnancy signs and symptoms. [7]
For the vast majority of women, the earliest of the very first signs of pregnancy are those the most commonly found:
A missed period is known as the most prominent of the very early pregnancy signs and symptoms. However, it is a well-known fact that many women miss periods for different health reasons and conditions, such as illness, stress, adverse reaction to food and substances, and, on the other hand, that some women have a bleeding that imitates a period even during pregnancy.
Morning sickness is another obvious sign among early pregnancy symptoms. However, sickness, if not related to pregnancy, can also have other causes.
Sore and enlarged breasts are a symptom because early pregnancy begins a series of changes in the woman’s normal hormonal levels. However, the woman’s body is not prepared for these changes when they first occur, so that several reactions can happen in her body as a consequence of the new hormone levels. The most obvious of those is the change in shape of, and feelings of soreness in, the breasts.
Frequent trips to the bathroom are symptom many women experience in early pregnancy. Many women begin urinating at an increased frequency even before they have a missed period. The reason for this is a change in hormone levels produced by the implantation of the embryo. Specifically, the hormone called human Chorionic gonadotropin has the side effect of causing frequent urination.
Fatigue is another of the first signs of pregnancy, which is sometimes hard to distinguish from other, more regularly felt kinds of exhaustion. Some health professionals attribute this fatigue to the change in hormones in the woman’s body, which mostly disappears as the body adjusts to the changes.