# LH level blood result



## Littledream (Dec 21, 2015)

Post below what the norm is


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## Godiva (Nov 19, 2015)

All depends on when the sample was taken (what part of the cycle) and what you are wanting it for...


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## Littledream (Dec 21, 2015)

Before ovulation and testing for LH... IUI


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## Godiva (Nov 19, 2015)

http://www.healthline.com/health/lh-blood-test has this table:
women in the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle: 1.9 to 12.5 IU/L
women at the peak of the menstrual cycle: 8.7 to 76.3 IU/L
women in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle: 0.5 to 16.9 IU/L
pregnant women: less than 1.5 IU/L
women past menopause: 15.9 to 54.0 IU/L
women using contraceptives: 0.7 to 5.6 IU/
men between the ages of 20 and 70: 0.7 to 7.9 IU/L
men over 70: 3.1 to 34 IU/L

Wikipedia tells you a lot about LH too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luteinizing_hormone

I should think it is relatively accurate, but it shows that a one off measurement does not tell you that much. As with urine tests it is the trend that counts. This chart is a very clear illustration of your hormones during a normal menstrual cycle. Take into account of course that the days marked may vary from woman to woman and from month to month. http://sbi4u3.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/4/0/16403200/3972834_orig.jpg
Your cycle starts with your menstrual period, when the uterus gets rid of the old lining (like making up your bed with clean sheets for the next potential guest). The FSH and LH stimulate your follicles to grow and mature (his is called the follicular phase of your cycle). At a certain point the estrogen starts rising, one of the tasks of this hormone is to help the lining of your uterus (the endometrium as it is called) to grow. (The thickness of the lining is represented at the bottom of the chart, you also see the blood vessels that grow into the lining and will help feed the placenta if you get an implantation). The rise in estrogen will trigger a rise in FSH and LH. The sharp peak in LH triggers the largest follicle (sometimes more than one follicle) to burst and releas the egg. This is the ovulation. The remains of the follicle turn into the corpus luteum (or yellow body, because the cells look yellow) and starts producing progesterone (the luteal phase of your cycle). If there is an implantation of a blastocyst in the uterine lining, the placenta will start developing, and it will start producing hormones, the most well known is HCG. This is what is detected with a pregnancy test. One of the roles of HCG is to signal the corpus luteum to continue it's hormone production.
If no implantation occurs, the corpus luteum will not receive a signal to keep on producing progesterone and will collapse. The resultant drop in progesterone will then trigger the next menstrual period, and the old uterine lining will be shed, so a new cycle starts.

This is just to illustrate that female hormonal cycles are complicated things, and that the absolute numbers are not quite as important as the fact that they do fluctuate. In the table I put at the beginning of the post you will see that there is an overlap in the "normal ranges" of values at different points of the cycle. For example, a value of 9 IU/L (international units per litre) falls within the "normal" range at every point of the cycle. If you just interpret 1 blood test, you do not know which phase you are in, if you are still growing follicles, if you are about to ovulate or if you have already ovulated. This is why a clinic doing blood tests to know the time of your ovulation (although they usually will combine it with ultrasound) starts testing a few days before they expect you to ovulate (or even at the beginning of your cycle) so they know your baseline and can watch how things develop.

I think this is more than you asked for, but what I am pointing out is that there is no clear cut definition, like for some other blood tests. We women are just too complicated for that ;-).

/links


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## Godiva (Nov 19, 2015)

BTW: if you are planning home insemination, a urine test is just as accurate at predicting your ovulation as the blood tests.
Another important note to some of the information on a site I posted a link too: the survival time of frozen sperm after insemination is much shorter than that of fresh sperm, which is why some people who do home insemination inseminate themselves 2-4 times in one cycle, to be sure there is "live" sperm around at the moment the egg is released.


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