Around the uterus in fourteen days: the luteal phase

[mcg1102]

@danyellem They vary from person to person -- my classic progesterone symptoms are tender breasts, moodiness, and weird dreams, and others commonly report things like cramping, nausea, various GI symptoms, [probably others I'm not thinking of right now]. Progesterone doesn't have to cause symptoms, and what people experience is pretty subjective. But when people talk about "PMS symptoms" or "early pregnancy symptoms", those are all progesterone.

 

[scuba7jb]

@mcg1102 Progesterone causes weird/vivid dreams?? Interested as I’m about 6/7 DPO and have had really weird ones the past few nights. Didn’t think they were related…

 

[mcg1102]

@scuba7jb My personal hypothesis is that I get worse-quality sleep when progesterone is high, so it's not necessarily that progesterone causes weird dreams, but that I'm more likely to wake up in/after a REM cycle, and therefore more likely to remember them.

But yeah, when I did an IVF transfer cycle, I started off taking estrogen alone and had basically the best sleep of my life. And then I started progesterone injections and boom! weird dreams.

 

[chronoswirl]

@mcg1102 Thanks for this, this was a super interesting read and also really clarifies why there is a lot of variation in the timing of BFPs.

 

[haydenbehm]

@mcg1102 Thanks so much for this! It put my symptom spotting at bay and if I'll have other cycles, I'll reread this whenever I start to symptom spot anytime before 11 DPO haha.

 

[jonna13]

@mcg1102 This is so interesting, thank you! So if you are on the shorter end of the luteal phase (10 days), does this make it much less likely for successful implantation to occur?

 

[emanuela]

@jonna13 Nope! By 10DPO most implantation events will have happened, and the hcg signal can get the CL pumping out more progesterone very quickly.

 

[stout6336]

@mcg1102 thank you! I have saved this for reference during the tww, as I feel like I will find it reassuring to read and won't feel the urge to research various parts of ttc.

 

[lgmtn]

@mcg1102 This could not have come at a better time; I was trying to figure out what to Google to learn this information like an hour ago! Thank you so much for the detailed information, it's so cool how bodies work!

 

[seraphimscherub]

@mcg1102 Great read!! Thank you for posting this.

 

[melelina808]

@mcg1102 This is awesome! Thanks for posting! It seems to make sense that having sex closer and closer to ovulation would better chances of sperm being there - so how do we know that O-3 and O-1 could produce the same chances?

 

[mcg1102]

@melelina808 We know this because there have been studies done where people only have sex one day of the fertile window, and people who have sex on one of O-1/2/3 get pregnant at roughly equivalent rates (links in this comment). Most sperm don't survive that long, but most sperm don't need to survive that long in order to have a good shot at fertilization occurring.

 

[pamela23]

@mcg1102

 

[joanaugusts]

@mcg1102 Thank you for this it is great!

 

[suzz]

@mcg1102 Loved this incredibly helpful explanation! You’re a fantastic teacher.

 

[ihaveahope]

@mcg1102 Extremely help post. I am going to make my husband read this as he has been confused with why I test on a certain day post ovulation and become unhappy if its negative (I use pretty sensitive tests), why I complain about progesterone symptoms and why I have been concerned when my luteal phase is less than 10 days.

 

[sishend]

@mcg1102 Is there an issue if our luteal phase is getting shorter after coming off the pill? Mine went from 10 days, to 9 days, to 7 days. I’m wondering if that means there isn’t enough time or progesterone for implantation to successfully occur.

 

[smurfettemc]

@mcg1102 This is so helpful! Finding this a few weeks late. So are the typical early symptoms of pregnancy, specifically morning sickness, the progesterone or HCG? I always thought it was HCG!

 

[mcg1102]

@smurfettemc True morning sickness is thought to be caused by hCG, but it’s not really a “early” symptom — it starts on average around 6 weeks of pregnancy, or 4 weeks post-ovulation, as hCG levels really start to take off.

 

[smurfettemc]

@mcg1102 Thank you! You are such a Great resource!