Low progesterone but +opk and thermal shift - don't know what's going on!

[hedgehog1975]

I’ve posted on here before about my investigations and how I’m not happy with them and have received some good advice. My progesterone tests came back low (I think they were 10 at the beginning, rising to 29 on 50mg of Clomid – so still not great). We checked the date afterwards and they were 6/7 days before CD1, so at the right time on day 21.

I have stopped the Clomid as I wasn’t happy with the monitoring (no scans and only 2 blood tests) and decided to monitor my cycle for a couple of months. I have been getting clear temperature shifts, and also a smiley face on my Duo Clearblue ovulation tests, as I always did before the investigations.

I’m confused that the consultant says that I’m not ovulating, and that my day 21 results were low, yet the other methods of testing would indicate that I am – has anyone ever encountered this before or have any suggestions as to why this could be the case? Can you have low progesterone, yet still have a thermal shift and ovulate? And if you did, why wouldn’t you get pregnant?

Hx

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

First off, do you have an actual diagnosis?.

Clomid is often given to women when there is definitive proof that you are not ovulating.

If your progesterone level is awry then chances are that your LH and FSH at the start of the cycle are also awry as well. LH and FSH are two very important hormones as they kickstart the ovulation process, if
these two levels are out then ovulation is affected.

Other methods of home testing like OPKs and temp charting for that matter (you can get a temp rise in the second half of the cycle as well when an egg has not been shed) are completely unreliable if there are such underlying problems to begin with. These ovulation predictor kits measure LH: if there is an excess of LH the kit simply reads that excess level and gives you a false positive result. You can also get multiple false positive results. They also work on two misleading principles; namely a rise in LH is immediately followed by ovulation and that there is only one rise in LH every month. Both are simply not true.

Are you planning on getting a second opinion now?. I would go for that and insist on being monitored monthly rather than messing around further with using OPK kits or temp charting because that has really led you up the garden path.

[hedgehog1975]

The ‘diagnosis’ was that I didn’t ovulate on the cycle that they tested – which is what I’m not happy with as I’ve not been scanned I don’t feel they can really tell what’s going on with a single blood test. I’ve registered my concerns with the Trust and have just chased them up – the PALS people are dealing with it but they’re very slow. I have a docs appointment in a couple of days when I was going to ask about getting a second opinion – but it probably won’t come through until I’ve seen my own consultant for the next time, at which point I’m hoping she’ll have answered my concerns and hopefully agreed for me to have a scan.

My LH and FSH levels were ok – FSH of 9 and LH of 3. I was concerned that the LH was low, but they said it was fine. There seems to be a lot of information about FSH being a lot lower than LH, but not so much the other way around. I just hoped that someone else might have come across the same problem and say ‘that sounds like x’.

Thanks, Hx

[Mariposa70]

I also had this, was temp charting and using CB fertility monitor (which gave peak readings) however had 21 day bloods done on two different cycles and they showed I was not ovulating. First reading was 12 then 26 on 50mg of clomid.
Was upped to 100mg of clomid for 3mths but did not work for us (have had previous clomid success)
I don't understand it either as I didn't think the monitor would show a peak if the hormone levels weren't high enough???
Good luck.