My Journey to Prevent Miscarriage, Part 1

After three miscarriages, I decided that I either needed to be done trying for another child or I had to make some major life changes to prevent miscarriage. I was on progesterone my last two miscarriages, baby aspirin too for my last one. I read It Starts with the Egg (as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases), and I followed nearly all of her advice for recurrent miscarriages. But I still lost my baby. 

At 40, I was still having regular 28-day cycles, and my LH was peaking every month, so I knew I was still ovulating. It took me 6 cycles of trying to conceive with my last pregnancy that ended in miscarriage and 1 cycle trying the time before that. I didn’t seem to have any trouble conceiving, just with miscarriages. My OB made it sound like it was just my age and there was nothing I could do about it.

Finding Answers

I refused to accept this answer, but it did make me ask this question: what about my age was the problem? I had worked on egg quality with It Starts with the Egg, but that had not helped. I looked at signs of perimenopause, and I realized that I did not have most of the signs, but I did have signs of low progesterone. As I discovered, progesterone declines with age. 

This was my lightbulb moment because I was supplementing with progesterone, but my progesterone was still on the lower end for my last pregnancy after I begged my OB to test me. I decided I would do everything I could think of to get my progesterone up before trying to get pregnant again. I did my own research and worked with an alternative medicine practitioner to come up with my own specific hormone plan to prevent miscarriage. 

Balancing Hormones

It wasn’t just progesterone; I needed to figure out how to balance my hormones and this is where Vitex comes into play. Vitex works at balancing hormones. I took Vitex for 4 months before trying. I would take 2 pills during the first half of my cycle (Follicular phase) and 3 pills the second half (Luteal phase). Once I got a positive pregnancy test, I would go down to taking 1 Vitex a day in the morning until I hit 6 weeks. 

I learned that Red Raspberry Leaf Tea can also help with naturally balancing hormones to prevent miscarriage, though that is not why most women drink it. I started drinking Red Raspberry Leaf Tea first thing in the morning and before bed for 5 months before trying to conceive and will continue until I hit 14 weeks pregnant. I’ve done the tea bags and the loose tea.

Increasing Progesterone

When I looked at natural forms of progesterone, I found Wild Yam Cream. I started rubbing Wild Yam Cream on my stomach first thing after waking up every morning to increase my progesterone and prevent miscarriage. I used ¼ a teaspoon of Wild Yam Cream for 5 months before trying to conceive and will continue to use it till 8 weeks.

It was recommended for me to use bioidentical progesterone, but this was cost prohibitive with everything else I was doing. Instead, I used the 200mg vaginal progesterone suppositories prescribed from my OB for the luteal phase of my cycle for 4 months before trying to conceive. I would use one before bed starting the day of ovulation and I plan to continue the first 10 weeks of pregnancy before discontinuing. 

High Cortisol Conflict

I learned that high cortisol could impede the body in making progesterone. Cortisol is the primary stress hormone and although decreasing life’s stresses while trying to conceive is great advice, I found that quite difficult to actually do. It turns out that taking Maca Powder daily can help with decreasing cortisol.

My life as a special education teacher, a foster parent and a single mom had been quite stressful. Sometimes I would feel like I couldn’t calm my body down even though nothing stressful was happening. I started with taking 1 tsp of Maca Powder daily in the midmornings in a smoothie, or other drink. This suppressed my appetite because cortisol makes you hungry, so I had to make sure to still consume enough calories. After 6 weeks, I dropped to ½ tsp Maca Powder daily for another 6 weeks, then ¼ tsp for maintenance until I got a positive pregnancy test.

That feeling of not being able to calm down, or of being stressed out for no reason, stopped completely within about 3 weeks. I was still stressed when something stressful was happening, but that rush out the door in the mornings was no longer leaving me feeling like I had run a marathon of stress.

Magnesium to Make Progesterone

I found out that progesterone production needs magnesium, but so does cortisol production. This means that all of my stress production had depleted my body of magnesium, which is why for every single one of my pregnancies the first symptom I always noticed was trouble sleeping. My body was using up every bit of magnesium to maintain my pregnancies, so I was left with not enough for good sleep. This was true even for my daughter’s pregnancy and it makes me realize even more how much of a miracle she is. 

I started taking 2 Magnesium Glycinate pills nightly for 5 months and ate 2 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds daily to increase my magnesium before trying to conceive. I immediately noticed better sleep. On days where I managed to not eat any pumpkin seeds, I would take 4 pills of Magnesium Glycinate, but I noticed my sleep was not as good as when I combined both. I will continue taking both till 14 weeks pregnant.

Wrapping It Up

Now this was everything I did to increase my progesterone and help my hormones before trying to conceive again, but it was not everything I did to prevent miscarriage. In the next part of this series, I will talk about all of the dietary changes that I made to help my body.

Here is a quick recap:

Happy Conceiving!

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Devastating Emotions Around a Miscarriage – hummingbirdhomelife.com