Help! Lupron and progesterone question.

[Lizzie68]

Hi,
I'm currently doing my first IVF cycle and have been ttc for almost 3 years. I'm on day 8 of shots and have 13 follicles growing! When the nurse called this afternoon with my lab results she told me that my estrogen was fine (1200) but that they were worried about my progestrone level, which was 3.6. Apparently the Lupron is supposed to be suppressing ovulation. If my progesterone levels are higher tomorrow we'll probably have to cancel this cycle. Has anyone else heard of this or experienced this? I'm very worried about having to cancel this cycle. Any info would be extremely appreciated! Thanks!

[Ghost]

Hi,
I'm currently doing my first IVF cycle and have been ttc for almost 3 years. I'm on day 8 of shots and have 13 follicles growing! When the nurse called this afternoon with my lab results she told me that my estrogen was fine (1200) but that they were worried about my progestrone level, which was 3.6. Apparently the Lupron is supposed to be suppressing ovulation. If my progesterone levels are higher tomorrow we'll probably have to cancel this cycle. Has anyone else heard of this or experienced this? I'm very worried about having to cancel this cycle. Any info would be extremely appreciated! Thanks!

Elevated progesterone can ruin the endometrium. More specifically, the endometrium and embryo development need to be synchronized so that the receptive phase of the endometrium occurs around 6-7 days after fertilization, when a hatched blastocyst is typically ready to implant. Progesterone regulates the endometrium, and if it rises too early, the endometrium will start advancing too soon, and your embryos will miss the implantation "window". This is a common consequence of ovarian stimulation.

I'd say P4 reaching 3.6 before hCG is definitely elevated. Common cutoff levels are 1.0-1.2ng/ml.

The good news:

Elevated P4 (progesterone) should not have any negative implications for the quality of your eggs or the resulting embryos. This assessment is up to your physician, of course, but there are many publications supporting this. Therefore, they should be able to retrieve the eggs, fertilize them, and grow the embryos to whatever stage your clinic freezes them. Frozen embryos work well at most clinics, and they can be transferred into a more perfectly timed endometrium (no stimulation cycle to interfere with it).

A canceled cycle is not necessarily bad news. It often leads to better chances under more controlled conditions in the FET (frozen embryo transfer) cycle.