Sunday, July 1, 2012

21 day blood test

The "cycle day 21" progesterone test should really not be called that. It should be called the "7 days past ovulation" test because it needs to be done 7 days AFTER ovulation. The doctors use a textbook average 28 days cycle to come up with "day 21" test, but not all women have a 28 day cycle and the timing of this test is important.

After ovulation, progesterone production ramps up and levels begin to surge. They peak and then plateau at about day 7 after ovulation, which is when they do the test - when progesterone is about at its highest level.

The test measures progesterone and if its above a certain level it will confirm that you ovulated and that you had enough progesterone in your system to get pregnant and stay pregnant, so its a really important test.

Here are the measurements:
<10 nmol/l = no ovulation>
10-30nmol/l = ovulation occured but not enough progesterone to get/stay pregnant
>30 nmol/l - a normal, healthy level

No comments:

Post a Comment