How long did you take PIO's?

[lisa10]

My RE has been weaning me off PIO for the last week. Tonight is supposed to be my last shot. I saw the OB for the first time today and she was surprised the RE did not wait until week 12 to stop the PIO's. I have a lot left over and am wondering if I should just keep doing 1 shot every other night as I have been doing for the past week till I get to 12 weeks or stop as directed? Since things are going well, I hate to change things. What if the PIO shots are helping and by stopping them I will m/c?
I'm just curious on how long you guys took the PIO shots for?

[baylorbear33]

Hi there, I was actually on PIO shots through week 14 and did vaginal suppositories through week 16. I did an FET and because of my history, the RE kept a close eye on my progesterone. He started weening me from the PIO shots to a lower dose of vaginal suppositories and eventually to nothing at all. It could be that your progesterone numbers are high enough that they are not worried. Because I did an FET and my body didn't really start producing progesterone until after the 12th week, my progesterone was always hovering around 25. This was sufficient, but certainly not high. I would just tell your RE of your concerns and ask them why you are not going to be on the shots longer. My OB put me on the P17 shot starting at week 18, so I am still getting a progesterone dose weekly at this point and will continue to receive the weekly shot through week 35 or 36.

[bjones22]

Lisa - I was told today that I will be on them (and the crinone vaginal suppositories) until I am 12 weeks. From what I understand the placentas should be producing the progesterone by then.

I am a little bit scared of stopping even at 12 weeks because there is going to be a decrease in the progesterone level no matter when you stop. The RE's office has said that I am good as long as my p2 level stays above 30, but I don't know how the decrease from 115Ish to whatever it will be when I stop taking the PIO will affect the health of the pregnancy.

If it was me I would probably ask the OB if they will agree to you continuing to take it until 12 weeks.... Just for my own peace of mind. Especially with the spotting that you had over the weekend.

[DillysGirl]

I just asked my OB about the PIO shots today. I am supposed to go off of them in like a week (puts me a little over 11 weeks) and I told him I was worried about just cold turkey stopping them and if this would cause a problem. He told me that by this point my body should be producing enough that the 1ml I take nightly is just a drop in the bucket comparably.

I hope your first appt. with the OB went well! Today was my first appt. too and I was soo nervous that my blood pressure was high! Did you get to see your baby again? I was pleasantly surprised with a 3d u/s!

[poohgirl]

I will stop my on friday--I will be 11 weeks on the nose then. My RE says the Baby (babies in my case) start making progestrone at about 9 to 10 weeks so we should be good. Call and ask though if you want, or ask your OB to run a progestrone blood test a few days after you stop, then you can restart if it is too low. Hope that helps!

[lisa10]

OK, so I called the RE. They said no one ever, ever, ever has been on proj to 12 wks and is surprised the OB would say that. They always wean between 8-10 wks and I'm 9. The nurse said I could email the RE if I wanted to hear it from him, but I did not need to continue. She did say if I prefered I could do 1 shot every other day for the next week, but after that point it was usless. Have to talk to DH, but I think I will do the 1 more week to be safe and cancel my blood test for Friday when they would check if it dropped once I went off it.

My appointment did go well with OB. Being it was my 3rd baby working with her, it was really just a quicky appointment. It was kinda like, you know this all already...any questions? But I did get to see the baby again. It is huge. I showed DH the pic and he said it looked like a turtle. Then this morning I showed my daughters the pic and my oldest said, "It looks like a turtle!" So I guess right now I have a turtle baby. But it is getting so big! Now I wait till 20 wks for the next u/s. It is a special echo cardiogram u/s to check the baby's heart as well as normal u/s since my oldest DD was born with a heart defect and we weren't prepared.

[olim78]

Hi Lisa10 - I think we were on the same Ovt/Nov board for a while.

I got my BFP this week so very early days. Just been reading your thread and am a bit worried now- I only have prgesterone pessaries to take until 8 weeks - do you think that it enough. Haven't had any tests to check my prgesterone levels so might ask for one at my 7 week scan.

Glad all is going well with you.

[statsgoddess]

The fertility clinic told us to do the PIO until the 12th week, which I am in right now. We asked the high risk doctor last week if that meant the beginning of week 12 or the end of week 12 and he said it honestly didn't matter and that if we stopped at the beginning of the week and had a miscarriage a few days later, he could assure us that it was in no way from stopping the shots. He also said it wasn't hurting anything and to just to do what we feel comfortable with. We still have some left, so we are going to continue the rest of the week, but that's it. And believe me, I will be happy to be done with those things!!

[angeinhull]

Hi

I had suppositories til 8 weeks.I was scared to come off but as you can see it worked well. I would say trust your RE.

Angela

[lisa10]

olmi Well my RE said they usually stop between 8 and 10 weeks and never, ever go past 10 wks. So I would not worry if you are done after 8 wks. I just hate 2 doctors saying different things on an issue I am already worried about. But the OB doesn't do PIO's anyway so maybe she is wrong about wk 12. The RE was shoked she would say wk 12. I think I am going to go one more week. I guess all it can hurt is my bum and it's used to that by now. I feel comfortable with that, but my DH is crazy nervous about this pregnancy so I will have to persaude him that it is OK to stop at that point.