Using Progesterone Suppositories: When To Pee After Insertion & Other Crucial Info

When Can I Pee After Prog­es­terone Suppository? For some women, get­ting preg­nant and hav­ing a healthy preg­nan­cy isn’t always easy. Accord­ing to the Nation­al Insti­tute of Health, as many as 20 per­cent of preg­nan­cies end in mis­car­riages every year, some­where between 750,000 and one mil­lion. That fig­ure rep­re­sents a huge num­ber of women deal­ing with grief and loss every year because their dream of hav­ing a baby abrupt­ly ends. And that num­ber does­n’t include the num­ber of women who mis­car­ry before even know­ing they’re pregnant. Many things con­tribute to dif­fi­cul­ty con­ceiv­ing and/or mis­car­riage, includ­ing genet­ics, age, med­ica­tions take pri­or to preg­nan­cy and a host of oth­er fac­tors.. One way physi­cians help women over­come these issues is by pre­scrib­ing prog­es­terone sup­pos­i­to­ries. This med­ica­tion can help increase fer­til­i­ty, and in some cas­es sta­bi­lize a wom­an’s repro­duc­tive func­tion­ing so that car­ry­ing a baby in those first vital months becomes eas­i­er and safer. In this post, we look at how prog­es­terone sup­pos­i­to­ries work, when they’re used, and some of the most com­mon­ly asked ques­tions women have about their effec­tive­ness. Some­thing as sim­ple as know­ing when to pee after insert­ing a sup­pos­i­to­ry is vital for the med­ica­tion con­tained with­in it to work at peak efficiency. First, let’s look at when and why doc­tors turn to prog­es­terone to help women who are hav­ing dif­fi­cul­ty get­ting preg­nant, and those who are hav­ing dif­fi­cul­ty car­ry­ing a baby to term.

Why Are Low Progesterone Levels a Challenge?

Whether you hope to get preg­nant now or are sim­ply want­i­ng to plan a fam­i­ly in a few years, the prog­es­terone lev­els in your body helps deter­mine whether you’ll be able to con­ceive eas­i­ly. How­ev­er, this impor­tant hor­mone helps with more than fer­til­i­ty and car­ry­ing a healthy fetus. Prog­es­terone sup­pos­i­to­ries can also help in oth­er circumstances: • Irreg­u­lar men­stru­al cycles can con­tribute to dif­fi­cul­ty get­ting preg­nant. Prog­es­terone is key to sta­bi­liz­ing month­ly men­stru­al cycles. Ask your doc­tor whether prog­es­terone sup­pos­i­to­ries are indi­cat­ed if you’re cop­ing with irreg­u­lar cycles; she may rec­om­mend putting you on them for a cer­tain peri­od of time. • If your doc­tor has any con­cerns that your baby might be pre­ma­ture, a course of prog­es­terone sup­pos­i­to­ries may be rec­om­mend­ed. This treat­ment low­ers the risk of hav­ing a baby before the full term. • After your child­bear­ing years, prog­es­terone can also help. Dur­ing menopause, women are some­times plagued with night sweats, hot flash­es, mood swings and oth­er uncom­fort­able symp­toms. Talk to your doc­tor about whether prog­es­terone sup­pos­i­to­ries would help alle­vi­ate these issues.

How Do Progesterone Suppositories Work?

Prog­es­terone is a vital­ly impor­tant hor­mone both before and dur­ing preg­nan­cy. Here are some of its most impor­tant func­tions in this area: • Prog­es­terone works to sta­bi­lize and thick­en the endome­tri­al wall, there­by mak­ing your body more capa­ble of sus­tain­ing a pregnancy. • Prog­es­terone also helps sta­bi­lize and relax the uter­ine mus­cles, which helps ensure the preg­nan­cy is able thrive secure­ly in the uterus. Relax­ing the uterus also pre­vents ear­ly, unwant­ed con­trac­tions from start­ing, which could lead to miscarriage. • Prog­es­terone helps to widen blood ves­sels, which means a preg­nant woman is less sus­cep­ti­ble to high blood pres­sure as the blood flows more easily. • This hor­mone can also help new­ly preg­nant women relax psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly, and less stress means there is a low­er risk of mis­car­riage. Although phys­i­cal fac­tors play a larg­er role in the risk of mis­car­riage, stay­ing as calm as pos­si­ble con­tributes to the health of the fetus. Prog­es­terone can help with this. • Stud­ies have shown that tak­ing prog­es­terone in the form of sup­pos­i­to­ries is more effec­tive than get­ting injec­tions or tak­ing pills. 

How Do You Use These Suppositories?

Prog­es­terone sup­pos­i­to­ries come in small pack­ets with each one indi­vid­u­al­ly wrapped in a foil- like mate­r­i­al. Admin­is­ter­ing the dose your­self is easy; they come with an appli­ca­tor that looks and works in much the same way as a tam­pon applicator. 1) First thing in the morn­ing, have a pee, then return to bed. 2) Insert the sup­pos­i­to­ry into the vagi­na and remain lying down for at least 30 min­utes. It’s per­fect­ly nor­mal to expe­ri­ence a lit­tle dis­charge once you stand and begin to move around. 3) Decid­ing how long to use prog­es­terone sup­pos­i­to­ries is best con­clud­ed with the advice of your physician.

How Soon Can You Pee After Inserting a Progesterone Suppository?

It’s per­fect­ly nor­mal to need to pee upon wak­ing first thing in the morn­ing. How­ev­er, there are impor­tant things to remem­ber once the sup­pos­i­to­ry is insert­ed. After all, you want the med­ica­tion to be as potent as pos­si­ble in order to start work­ing promptly. • Don’t pee or evac­u­ate your bow­els for at least half an hour once you’ve placed the sup­pos­i­to­ry into your vagi­na. As we said, lying in a prone posi­tion in bed ensures that the dose does its work to the max­i­mum level. • If you’re in a rush to get to the office one day and don’t have time to rest in bed, there­by miss­ing a dose, what should you do? Sim­ply use the sup­pos­i­to­ry as soon as you can – when you get home, for exam­ple, and can set aside the nec­es­sary allot­ment of time to insert the sup­pos­i­to­ry and remain lying down. Nev­er add a sec­ond dose the next day – like most med­ica­tions, dou­bling a dose can bring risks with it.

Speaking Of Risks — What Are The Potential Side Effects?

Although prog­es­terone is a nat­u­ral­ly occur­ring hor­mone in the body, there are some poten­tial side effects every woman should be informed of before decid­ing to use this medication. Hav­ing an in-depth con­ver­sa­tion with your physi­cian or gyne­col­o­gist about these poten­tial risks is cru­cial to mak­ing an informed deci­sion. Your con­tin­u­ing good health – and the health of a fetus – depends on how well apprised you are about whether prog­es­terone is right for you.

Potential Side Effects Of Progesterone:

• Nau­sea. • Yeast infections. • Changes to your vision. • Breast tenderness. • Changes to your weight, and bloating. • Changes to liv­er functions. • Mood swings and depression. • If you feel as though you’re hav­ing any kind of adverse or aller­gic reac­tion, con­tact your doc­tor imme­di­ate­ly, or go to the near­est hospital. Experts at the Cleve­land Clin­ic sug­gest that these and oth­er poten­tial side effects should be weighed against any repro­duc­tive issues and health prob­lems you may be fac­ing. Always talk to your doc­tor about any symp­toms you may expe­ri­ence once you begin using prog­es­terone sup­pos­i­to­ries. Although prog­es­terone is a nat­u­ral­ly occur­ring hor­mone, tak­ing any med­ica­tion does pose pos­si­ble con­se­quences to the user.

How Long Should You Use Progesterone Suppositories?

If you’re try­ing to get preg­nant and not hav­ing any luck, your doc­tor may rec­om­mend using prog­es­terone. As there isn’t a con­clu­sive way to know whether your nat­ur­al prog­es­terone lev­els are low, the evi­dence is in oth­er fac­tors. For exam­ple, a healthy 30-year-old woman with no under­ly­ing health con­cerns should be able to con­ceive rea­son­ably quick­ly. If that’s not hap­pen­ing and you’ve been try­ing for a while, your doc­tor may sug­gest this course of treatment. Stay­ing on prog­es­terone until you become preg­nant is usu­al­ly what doc­tors rec­om­mend. Then, once you’ve got­ten past the first 10 or 12 weeks, you should be able to stop using the sup­pos­i­to­ries. But again, this is a deci­sion you should make in con­sul­ta­tion with your physician. It’s impor­tant to note that there is no sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence that remain­ing on prog­es­terone sup­pos­i­to­ries for the first trimester of your preg­nan­cy is harm­ful to the fetus in any way. But again, talk­ing this over thor­ough­ly with your doc­tor is the best way to keep informed, and alle­vi­ate any con­cerns you may have.

In Summary

Whether you’re try­ing to get preg­nant nat­u­ral­ly, under­go­ing IVG treat­ments, or sim­ply try­ing to man­age uncom­fort­able menopause symp­toms, prog­es­terone can play an impor­tant role in your health care. How­ev­er, it is not a med­ica­tion to be tak­en light­ly or with­out seri­ous thought, as there are poten­tial side effects that, while man­age­able, are not insignif­i­cant. As with all con­se­quen­tial med­ical treat­ments, using prog­es­terone sup­pos­i­to­ries should only be con­sid­ered after a full and frank dis­cus­sion with your doc­tor. Togeth­er you can decide when you should start prog­es­terone. The tim­ing may depend on how soon you hope to become pregnant. Once you’ve made the deci­sion to use the sup­pos­i­to­ries, it’s impor­tant that you use them cor­rect­ly, fol­low­ing all the instruc­tions to the let­ter. For exam­ple, lying down after insert­ing the sup­pos­i­to­ry is a cru­cial step in ensur­ing the med­ica­tion is ful­ly effec­tive. And what­ev­er you do, don’t get up to go to the bath­room to pee once the sup­pos­i­to­ry is in – pee ahead of time and then go back to bed! Wait at least 30 min­utes. Rest­ing in place, allow­ing the prog­es­terone sup­pos­i­to­ry to do its work and not inter­rupt­ing the process by pee­ing is the best way to make sure the med­ica­tion is absorbed into your bloodstream. With a lit­tle luck and a lot of excel­lent care by your physi­cian, along with this hor­mone that helps you get preg­nant, in just a few months you will like­ly have hap­py news to share with your friends and family.