It's so hard for me to believe that this is actually happening...
I'm 28 years old and my husband is 34. Neither of us have ever conceived. We've been ttc for 4 months, and this is our 6th cycle. Obviously I have very short cycles; they average from 23-24 days. My last cycle was only 21 days, though. I was also experiencing mid-cycle brown spotting on the regular. I started to think that I had a progesterone problem, especially since I was on Mirena for about 4 years. I had Mirena removed a year ago, but I heard that some women continue to experience problems maintaining an adequate level of progesterone far after Mirena is removed. After my husband and I had tried for 5 cycles and timed everything correctly, including BD'ing 4 times during each fertile window, I decided to invest in some Emerita Pro-Gest progesterone cream. I used this the day after ovulation (I probably ovulated on CD 11 but unconfirmed) and continued to apply it twice a day every day.
Here are my symptoms/activities by CD/DPO (didn't keep track of some of my earlier CDs):
cd 5 / -6 dpo: BD. Laid down for 20-30 minutes after.
cd 6 / -5 dpo: BD. Laid down for 20-30 minutes after.
cd 7 / -4 dpo: Nothing.
cd 8 / -3 dpo: BD. Laid down for 20-30 minutes after.
cd 9 / -2 dpo: BD. Laid down for 20-30 minutes after.
cd 10 / -1 dpo: Positive OPK in the morning. BD. Laid down for 20-30 minutes after.
cd 11 / 0 dpo: Probably ovulated. Did not BD.
cd 12 / 1 dpo: Husband left for job out of state. I started applying progesterone cream twice a day, every day on and after this day. started eating a VEGAN diet (cut out all dairy, eggs, and meat), not because of ttc but as a personal experiment/for my own health. Tracked my nutrition to ensure I was getting enough protein. 1 hour of spinning on the bike.
cd 13 / 2 dpo: Creamy cm; blamed it on the progesterone cream. Still eating vegan diet. 1 hour of spinning on the bike.
cd 14 / 3 dpo: Creamy cm. Still eating vegan diet.
cd 15 / 4 dpo: Creamy cm. Still eating vegan diet.
cd 16 / 5 dpo: Took a plane to out of state to meet my husband in the state that we will be moving to at the end of August. Started shopping for a house on this day. Ate vegan in the morning and then officially stopped the vegan "experiment" once my plane landed in the afternoon (planned). Felt great. Good energy. Hung out with friends. BD. Creamy cm; my husband noticed it was "wet."
cd 17 / 6 dpo: Creamy cm. Enjoying lots of great food and hanging out with friends. Shopping for houses. Good energy.
cd 18 / 7 dpo: Creamy cm. Still enjoying lots of great food and hanging out with friends. Shopping for houses. Good energy.
cd 19 / 8 dpo: Creamy cm. Bloated; blamed it on the food I was eating. Boobs and back hurt; blamed it on PMS. Flew back to state we are currently living in. Made an offer on a house and it was accepted by the sellers (!!!)
cd 20 / 9 dpo: Cm starting to dry up. Very bloated. Start to feel like AF is on her way. Disappointed but excited about the house.
cd 21 / 10 dpo: Dry cm. Very, very light brown, watery stuff only when I wipe. Sporadic and not enough for a liner. Start to definitely think AF is on her way. Very bloated and back and boobs hurt.
cd 22 / 11 dpo: Dry cm. Woke up with increased sex drive. Still having light brown stuff come out but it's not increasing. No cramps. Saw one DROP of brown blood on the toilet paper. Very bloated and back and boobs hurt. Cravings for chocolate and other junk food.
cd 23 / 12 dpo: Dry cm. Out of breath going up the stairs. Blame it on not being acclimated to the high altitude again yet (I live at high altitude and we had been visiting a place at sea level). Cravings for chocolate and junk food. Tender breasts and back pain. VERY bad gas. Bloating. Breaking out on face and butt. No desire to exercise.
cd 24 / 13 dpo: Supposed to start my period on this day. Wake up and don't have any cramps. Run to take a test as soon as I have to pee. It was one of those Amazon cheapies and I got a very faint positive but definitely saw it. Blinked a few times to make sure I wasn't imaging it or seeing an indent line. Waited a couple more minutes, looked away and back at it several times. Always saw a line. Ran to tell my husband. He was still sleeping (it was 6 AM) but he woke up IMMEDIATELY. Sent a picture to my best friend and she said she didn't see a line, but she "believed me." Husband drove me to take another test and I got a positive on a FRER (see pic)!!!!! Sent another picture to my friend and she finally agreed :-) Got a bit nauseous in the car ride to the store to get the test, but that's it. Random boob pain, and some twinges and pulling in my uterus. Still very bloated. All my pants feel too tight.
So, in sum, the only major things that were out of the ordinary for me were the lack of brown spotting that I usually have for 4-5 days before AF, the abundance of creamy cm after my O day, and the increased sex drive after O. I did blame all of those things on the progesterone cream at the time, but clearly it was something else!!!
I HIGHLY recommend this progesterone cream. I really think it did the trick. And if your doctors are telling you it's bullsh*t, then tell them to do their research in medical journals, because I looked at scholarly journal articles (research) in highly reputable medical journals (I'm also a doctor but not a medical doctor), and studies have shown that people who use the topical progesterone cream have similar levels of progesterone in their system as women who do injections or suppositories. So tell them to can it!
That's all! Good luck on your ttc journey!!