u/Schrutebucks101

I’ve been on progesterone only for 2 weeks now. I’m really starting to feel raw down there just near the vaginal entrance. I am not new to progesterone - this is an IVF pregnancy and I took way more suppositories in first trimester and only really had that feeling right near the end after taking it for 14 weeks.

The challenge is weirdly I have had so little discharge in pregnancy so I feel like my body isn’t cleaning out the residue as effectively.

Has anyone else experienced this? Did anything help?

Im finally having a second checkup this Wednesday to see if my cervix has remained stable for the past 2.5 weeks but I imagine even if it did I’ll be on progesterone for the rest of pregnancy (I’m 22 weeks right now)

UPDATE: pretty sure it was the hand soap I was using. I switched to a gentler soap and woke up without the dry raw feeling

I have so much anxiety and I know a lot of it stems from the lack of care and oversight of my case (borderline cervix found at 20 weeks, won’t have a followup ultrasound until 22.5 weeks, currently 21 weeks). I am on progesterone.

I second guess every weird feeling down there. Today I sneezed and it just felt weird when I sneezed. I also had the tiniest of flecks of red in my discharge, like if I wasn’t wearing a liner I wouldn’t have seen it. I had so much anxiety I called our health line who said they don’t advise coming in, to just talk to my OB within the next 5 days - I don’t have an OB because we don’t get one until 28 weeks. I have a regular family doctor who I am already scheduled to see in 3 days.

I feel so so so anxious I don’t know how to get through this period of time. I just wish I could be seen sooner so I could just know if I need to worry or not.

I have a lot of anxiety in general because this is an IVF pregnancy that has not been smooth sailing (hematoma in first trimester, placenta calcification found at 19 weeks, and now a borderline cervix at 28mm found at 20 weeks).

I am honestly just so frustrated with the state of healthcare where I am located. No OB until 28 weeks, working with non specialized family doctor only - who happens to be on vacation right now.

The ONLY reason I was able to get a progesterone prescription + ultrasound referral was because my mom happens to know the OB I have been referred to. The OB put in a referral for follow-up exam to happen this Friday (one week since last scan). I never received a call from the ultrasound booking place so called them. They said they could neither confirm nor deny they received the request because they were so backlogged with requests they hadn’t gotten to them yet. I said it was an urgent referral. They said it will be triaged by urgency. But it’s now Thursday and they have not called me to book anything for tomorrow. Then it will be a weekend so definitely nothing until next week.

. My OB has confirmed they have resent the referral again just to be safe but I still haven’t heard back a day later so it’s been three days since the booking place hasn’t gotten through all their requests.

I hate being at the mercy of poor systems and single people’s opinions, and it sounds like from a lot of folks it’s common to have a lackadaisical approach around this topic until it’s suddenly nearly or is too late. To them I am just another number in the system. But to me this is the child I’ve been trying to conceive for 4 years only to be at risk of losing them and the future of any other children.

I guess this is just a vent session. I’m grateful for the progesterone, I hope it is enough for me.

UPDATE: they could not get me in until 2.5 weeks after my 20 week scan. Absolutely ridiculous the state of healthcare where I am. Was only even able to get that appointment because my OB could bypass the 400(!!!) requisition backlog the ultrasound booking line hadn’t even looked at yet. Praying progesterone tides me over and the next scan is only good news. Will now sit in anxiety for the next week and a half.

Going to lay out all the facts:

-This is an IVF pregnancy that took four years to conceive so yes I do think I am more anxious but also I have not had a stress free pregnancy

- Subchorionic hematoma in first trimester, resolved by week 12

- Anatomy scan at 19 weeks showed “small calcification of placenta” abnormal for this early. Will have follow-up scan at week 28

- second anatomy scan at week 20 to get some final images they couldn’t before. Cervix found to be 28mm via transvaginal ultrasound. The report did not call anything out as abnormal - no followup needed (except for the 28 week to check on placenta)

Everything I’ve read is that average cervix is over 35 mm. Short cervix is at 25 mm. Usually doctors will monitor every week up to 24 weeks for anything between 25-30mm (this is google though, so I’m guessing that is more so in the states).

I am naturally high anxiety with this pregnancy and have read many people will have their cervix shorten within a week and they risk losing the baby if they are not put on progesterone or get a stitch if it’s very severe. Studies say for people between 25-30mm this happens to 1 in 7 (so it’s not that uncommon.

To make things more complicated I don’t see an OB until 28 weeks. My current family doctor is on vacation. I do not feel comfortable waiting until she is back.

I would love to hear from others if they have had similar results, did their doctor order any monitoring, just really any experiences with this. My plan is to call my doctors office on Tuesday and hope they can have the other doctor review and answer my questions. If they can’t, if anyone here is in Calgary can I go to the pregnancy/labour and delivery unit at one of the hospitals to see if they will review or do anything? I feel like I’ve heard of people doing that but I honestly feel lost here.

Thank you for any advice. I have already visited the r/shortcervixsupport Reddit and that actually gave me way more anxiety.

I posted last week that at my 19 weeks scan they wanted to book me a 28 week ultrasound for placental assessment but didn’t tell me why. Randomly the report was posted to my portal today and it says they found multiple small calcifications on the placenta hence the 28 week scan.

Has anyone else had this finding this early? And did it progress? I don’t see me family doctor for another 3 weeks and TBH I don’t think she will be great at explaining the risks since she isn’t an OB and hasn’t been very knowledgeable in other questions I’ve had with pregnancy (ie/ I had ansubchorionic hematoma in first trimester and shouldn’t tell me if it was a significantly large or small one and if I should be concerned). I don’t see an OB until sadly the day BEFORE the 28 week scan.

This is an IVF pregnancy after 4 years of trying so I do find my anxiety is already elevated and this finding I just want to know what to expect (ie/ being induced early as a possibility?)

Today I had my 20 week scan. Unfortunately they were not able to flip the baby to visualize spine and kidneys but they saw everything else. Because they didn’t have all images they said they couldn’t tell me anything about the health of the baby. But I received a follow up call 2 hours later saying the doctor wanted to schedule me again for a 28 week “placental assessment” scan (I will also be having another scan a week from now to try and get those other images).

When I asked why the receptionist couldn’t tell me. So I have no idea why I am booked for this 28 weeks scan but of course I have a lot of anxiety. For reference my placenta is in a fundal (top) position and I know I have low blood pressure. I did conceive via IVF if that changes anything? From measurements that I watched the baby was estimated to be right on target for gestational age.

Has this happened to anyone else and actually given a reason why? When I google the most common reason is low lying placenta but I have the opposite.

Hi everyone,

I have my anatomy scan at 19 weeks. I’m wondering if in Alberta specifically if they tell you results of that scan right away while you are there, or do I have to wait for a doctor follow-up? I am not with an OB until like 28 weeks (wait times are crazy right now). My friend told me they definitely told her the sex, but couldn’t recall about the actual physical measurements/if there are any abnormalities noted.

I am in Calgary and going to a MFM Center for the ultrasound.

Thank you!

Torn between all three. I feel like Maya and Claire have gotten more popular lately and I don’t want to have a super common name. Curious what everyone thinks!

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In Alberta is this routinely checked or do I need my doctor to specify? I am not high risk but I would prefer it to be checked.

I had to find out from a random instagram account that:

1. CMV is the most common congenital disease in pregnancy that can cause birth defects including deafness, seizures, serious disability
2. If you contract it for the first time in pregnancy your baby is at risk especially in first trimester. You have a 40% chance of passing it onto your baby and
3. It’s mainly contracted through toddlers of which 75% have it and they SHED THE VIRUS FOR YEARS!!!

Why do they tell us to avoid raw fish, deli meats etc. but don’t say “hey maybe avoid changing diapers, sharing food, getting coughed on by toddlers”??? And there is no routine testing to identify if you’ve never had the virus before and are therefore at a much higher risk if you get infection in pregnancy.

This is so serious and common that in certain countries if you haven’t had it before and work with children they put you on leave and you don’t work your entire pregnancy!!!

Not a single one of my friends had been told about this in pregnancy.

Cue me second guessing the sharing of blueberries I had with my niece in first trimester (where she licked her hands and gave me one to eat). Now I’ll have to worry the entire pregnancy about this.

I will be a FTM and I’m so confused on how to dress a newborn at night.

Let’s assume the room is 20 degrees Celsius / 68 Fahrenheit.

Please just give me links to EXACTLY what you would put a newborn in to sleep in at night.

I’m getting so confused by the TOG stuff and I feel like if I can just have links to everything it would make it so much easier for me to use tangible examples.

EDIT; Lots of good advice - thanks everyone!

I am 10w4d and had a gush of red blood. Had an ultrasound where baby was measuring on track and healthy overall. However, a hematoma was found “under” sack and near cervix. Size is 9x27x14 mm.

I do not get into an OB until 28 weeks and feel my family doctor is not equipped to tell me true risks.

The sack size averaged 40mm. I’ve read that at this point the ratio of hematoma to sack indicates miscarriage risk. I can’t figure out how to calculate that.

I do have another ultrasound in 2 weeks anyways so guess I will see if it shrinks.

Any guidance an OB can give me I would be super grateful. This is my first pregnancy in 4 years from IVF - this baby means everything to us.

I stopped taking progesterone on Saturday from a fulled mediated FET. Today I woke up to a gob of brown watery discharge. There is some on my panty liner too so it is continuing.

I am naturally very freaked out. I have leftover suppositories so I inserted 2 until I can talk to my doctor. Did this happen to anyone else who stopped progesterone??

In an effort to use less toxic solutions in our household we switched to Attitude dishwasher tablets. I have used attitude for their hair and body stuff so thought it would be a safe bet.

Well now it’s a daily annoyance to use the dishwasher tablets because they just don’t clean the best. There is always food remnants stuck on bowls or utensils when we never had that before with (I think it was cascade I think?). We live in a hard water region which I heard contributes.

Half the time after the dishwasher runs I’ll open it and half the solution hasn’t even dissolved in the tray.

Any recommendations for dishwasher tablets that worked for you (bonus points if you live in a hard water region)

I exclusively use kindle on my phone.

Today I opened it up and now it only shows my library. Before it would show recommendations based on my reading, now I can’t see that anywhere?

Is this an update that was pushed to everyone? Is there a way to revert back to the old version?

My friend and I are going to Nashville in June for Ed Sheeran. Through twist of fate I will be 14 weeks pregnant and she will be 30 weeks pregnant.

I’m very concerned about overheating during this event. We have floor seats.

One thing I’m thinking we will do is skip the beginning acts and show up at 8 when he is more likely to start and at least the sun will be setting.

So I guess a few questions:

1. how hot are floor seats?

2. is it easy enough to cool down (ie/ if we go to the bathroom is it a lot cooler in there?)

3. is water available and is it cold (for some reason I thought someone say there was a water station but the water isn’t cold)

Any other advice. Never been to an open air stadium for a concert before!

Thank you.