# Progesterone Advice Please



## Troll (Sep 30, 2010)

Hi there! I'd love some advice about different types of Progesterone options please.  I'm currently on my 2ww and had embryo transer 7 days ago.  I started off taking Utrogestan vaginally 4 times a day, but the absorption wasn't high enough so have been switched to Prontogest injections.  I have been doing these for several days but they are extremely painful.  I promise I'm not a wimp!  I don't mind needles and doing the injection, but usually a few hours after the injection the area is so sore that it is painful to move around and even sit.  

I'd love to know if I have any other options please.  I know that I may be able to take Utrogestan orally to boost my progesterone levels and this seems preferable to having the injections.  I'm not sure why my clinic isn't offering this option.  Is anyone able to offer me some advice about what other options are available?  My clinic doesn't seem very interested in offering alternatives and have pretty much told me to suck it up.... fair enough but they don't have to stand on a crowded train into London every day where every time someone brushes past you it makes you want to cry... or slap them!  Getting arrested for aggravated assault right now would not be a good thing! ;-)

I don't really want to have to do this up to 12 weeks if we are lucky enough to have a positive result, so any advice would be very much appreciated!

Thank you.


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## Mistletoe (Holly) (Jan 1, 2007)

It is up to your doctor, but the other options are cyclogest pessaries and crinone vaginal gel.

I personally was prescribed cyclogest 400mg three times a day. The usual dose is twice a day but they gave me a higher dose because my lining was 16mm. I never had my progesterone levels checked.

It is also worth looking at your injection technique. Have you been shown the correct ''zigzag technique'' where you pull the flesh to one side an inch or two, place the needle vertically into the muscle and then inject. One you remove the needle and allow the flesh to return to it's normal place the oily injection is kept inside the muscle preventing leakage to the skin.

It is maybe that you could have the prontogest as a top up a couple of times a week and use cyclogest or crinone daily as a baseline.

I am not your doctor though, so you will have to discuss your difficulties with the consultant directly. I am sorry it is so miserable at the moment


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## Troll (Sep 30, 2010)

Thank you so much for getting back to me!  I will speak to them again tomorrow and see if they can change me to something else as I don't think this is going to work for 12 weeks (fingers crossed for a positive result!!).  The top-up idea sounds perfect, I wouldn't mind doing it once or twice a week, that's so much more preferable to constantly being in pain.

No one showed me how to do the injections, I was just told they had to be done in my bottom.  I'm having a blood test on Tuesday so I'll speak to the nurse then and see if she can show me.

Thanks again for your advice, I really appreciate you taking the time to get back to me. x


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## mazv (Jul 31, 2006)

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/nmp/sonet/rlos/placs/nctl176_ztrack/index.html

http://www.merseycare.nhs.uk/Library/What_we_do/Clinical_Services/Pharmacy/Admin%20of%20meds%20-%20injections.pdf

Advice on how to administer deep IM injections by Z-track technique can be found in the above links  To be honest I'm pretty stunned that they just gave you the drugs and told you to get on with it!! There is a definite knack to giving IM injections that helps to minimise any side effects.

Hope you manage to get something sorted with your clinic 

Maz x

/links


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## Troll (Sep 30, 2010)

Oh wow!  Thank you so much for the advice!!

In the end I went back to my clinic and told them there was no way I could do the injections for 12 weeks, they were just too painful.  So I have been put back on Utrogestan but a combination of taking it orally and vaginally.  I had my progesterone tested on Tuesday and it was looking good (but that was probably due to the injections even though I had the last one on Sunday morning).  I have another test tomorrow to make sure everything is still ok.

On the plus side, I had my bhcg tested at the same time and it was 155, 9 days after a day 5 transfer.  I think that's good, isn't it?  Tomorrow's test will also include bhcg again to make sure the levels are going up as they should be.  Fingers crossed that this one works for us!

Thank you again for all your advice, I really do appreciate it x


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