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Tuesday 14 June 2011

luteal phase, caffeine and TTC

After a couple of months of TTC I found out that it is beneficial to give up caffeine so I did- I switched to de-caff... around this time I started tracking my cycles and using ovulation predictor kits (OPKs)... I soon discovered that I had a short luteal phase. The women’s cycle is one of two halves, the first half is the body gearing up for ovulation and is dominated by estrogen, the second half is gearing up for implantation and is dominated by progesterone. The part of the cycle following ovulation is called the luteal phase and should be between 10-16 days long. If the luteal phase is not long enough the womb lining starts to break down before the implantation of successfully fertilised egg can take place. In monitoring my cycles, I discovered that my luteal phase is border-line and varies from 9-11 days.

I have been diagnosed with “unexplained fertility”, this means that both myself and my other half have been tested and all seems to be fine. When I asked the doctor about luteal phase defect she looked at me like I was mad. She said that as long as I am producing enough progesterone 7 days post ovulation (I am ) then if an egg were to be fertilised my body would produce extra progesterone to nourish the pregnancy.

I say that perhaps my infertility is not unexplained! I wonder why there has not been more research into this. There is properly done medical research that shows luteal phase defect to be a problem, but NHS doctors don’t seem to accredit it.

There are natural supplements that can be taken for luteal phase defect and I have tried them to no avail (agnus castus, evening primrose, soya isoflavones). The only thing I haven’t tried is progesterone pessaries- these are prescription only. I won’t be able to get a prescription because my doctor doesn’t think I have a problem.

I tell you what I have noticed, my luteal phase is shorter when I eliminate caffeine from my diet. I don’t know what the link is, but I am convinced that there is one. I had no caffeine last month and my luteal phase was 9 days, this month I have had caffeine and I am on 11dpo and counting...

2 comments:

  1. I never knew this about luteal phases.

    It must be frustrating to have your doctor dismiss your concerns like that. While the doc may be right, she should have handled it more sensitively.

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  2. I had a luteal phase defect, and took clomid for it. But unlike you, my progesterone was low. After I'd tracked my cycles for several months, I saw I had a 12-13 day luteal phase. When I saw my GP and she did tests, she looked at my 21 day progesterone test, and said "I'm sorry, it doesn't seem that you were ovulating" and referred me to a fertility specialist. On the advice of friends from the EPT site, I took my charts with me. My fertility guy looked at my hormone levels, then my charts that clearly showed temperature shifts after ovulation, and said "well, there's no doubt that you ARE ovulating!" But clomid will boost the progesterone.

    I found it interesting. Of course, this doesn't help you at all, sorry. But I think it's worth pushing it with your doctor. 9 day luteal phases are pretty short.

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