Menu

Is progesterone safe to use for the whole duration of a pregnancy?

by Dayna

My first pregnancy was perfect. Our son was born in June of 2009. However, since then I have had three miscarriages. The first two were both at five weeks. After that,my doctor prescribed 100mg progesterone suppositories once a day until the twelfth of pregnancy. At ten weeks I heard the heart beat and everything was going well. I stopped taking the progesterone at twelve weeks as directed. However, I had my first ultrasound at twelve weeks and three days and a heart beat was no longer detected. I miscarried the baby a week and a half later.
My question is, is it safe to take progesterone throughout your whole pregnancy? And can you use too much progesterone? I would appreciate any advise that you can give me.
Thanks, Dayna

Comments for Is progesterone safe to use for the whole duration of a pregnancy?

Click here to add your own comments

Jan 22, 2012
 Is progesterone safe to use for the whole duration of a pregnancy?
by: Wray

Hi Danya Early miscarriages are often caused by insufficient progesterone. Stopping progesterone cold turkey will cause one too, exactly what happened to you. It must be reduced slowly, by no more than 16mg per reduction. This is extremely difficult to do with a suppository, one reason i prefer a cream. If recurrent miscarriages have occurred, I would always suggest no less than 200mg/day, and to always divide the amount into a minimum of twice a day. Progesterone levels begin dropping after about 13 hours. It is only safe to begin reducing progesterone slowly after 3-4 months, although it can be used for the duration. I have helped many women with recurrent miscarriages and pre-term births, who have used the cream throughout their pregnancy. We do have a page on Pregnancy which gives more into on how to use progesterone, how much and when. Plus there are plenty of papers too. You'll see most of them use between 200-600mg/day for miscarriages and pre-term births. As for too much, Dr Dalton would give 2400mg/day to her patients with post natal psychosis, and levels over 1200mg/day are given via IV transfusion to TBI victims. This is three times the amount we make during the third trimester. It is safe, and has been used for over 60 years now for all manner of problems. I've found it's best to start progesterone before conception, this avoids any Oestrogen Dominance occurring while pregnant. Please have a vitamin D test done, a low level is implicated in miscarriages, see here, here and here. Plus a low level reduces the benefits of progesterone. For more info on vitamin D levels, testing etc see the Vitamin D Council, GrassrootsHealth, Birmingham Hospital and Vitamin D Links websites. Blood levels should be 70-100ng/ml or 175-250nmol/L and not the 30ng/ml or 75nmol/L most labs and doctors regard as adequate. The minimum daily dose should be 5000iu's per day, although the latest research indicates it should be 10,000iu's per day, see here. Continued below.
Jan 22, 2012
 Is progesterone safe to use for the whole duration of a pregnancy? Part 2
by: Wray

Hi Danya Vitamin D is also vital for the developing foetus, see here, here, here, here and here. These are excellent videos to watch too, see here and here. Another nutrient you could consider is taurine, also vital for the foetus, see here, here and here. Take care Wray

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Progesterone faq.

Share this page:
Find this page helpful? Please tell others. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.

Search over 8,400 pages on this site...