The body produces progesterone in the second half of the cycle, known as the luteal phase. It's progesterone that causes the basal body temperature to rise. It's progesterone that helps the lining of the uterus to thicken for a possible fertilized egg to implant. It's progesterone that goes on to maintain a pregnancy, once implantation takes place. And it's progesterone that keeps the baby safely in the womb until ready to be born. If progesterone is deficient, you will experience PMS, luteal phase deficiency, miscarriage, preterm labor and possibly premature birth. Low progesterone is also responsible for post partum depression in many cases. Knowing what progesterone does you can certainly see why a deficiency in this can cause a lot of problems.
My own story verifies this. I first noticed I had problems with fertility when I was trying to conceive my third baby. I had suffered through two early miscarriages and had a luteal phase defect. I began using a natural progesterone cream which helped to bring my luteal phase to 15 days; prior to that it was anywhere from 9 to 11 days. It took another six months for me to conceive her. I stopped the cream after seven weeks. I had preterm labor at 30 weeks with her, and was on seven weeks of bed rest before she was born at 37 weeks. My first two babies came at 35 and 36 weeks. At the time I was not aware of the fact that I could have used the cream throughout pregnancy.
Fast forward to December 2001. I was breastfeeding my 13 month old daughter, and my luteal phase was 6 to 9 days long. I thought conception would be impossible. I started using a new cream I had found - Happy PMS Cream for PMS. That very cycle I conceived my fourth baby. I continued the cream and had no sign of miscarriage. Because my third pregnancy was so high risk, and I had become pregnant so quickly again, I was braced for another bout of preterm labor to hit. At the advice of the manufacturer of Happy PMS Cream, I continued using the cream twice a day every day until my 27th week. At that point I used it three times a day, every single day until my 38th week.
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