Jo

I’ve had low progesterone for all 3 of my pregnancies now (and one premature birth), so the discussions about the evidence are always of interest to me. I think there is ambiguous evidence in general, but there are also differences in oral supplementation vs. shots that probably require different research threads (ref. the controversy about Makena recently coming off the market).

Both OB practices I worked with are somewhat unusual in that they automatically test progesterone levels at the beginning of pregnancy and monitor throughout. I’m thankful, because my pregnancies do follow a pattern of labor being triggered almost immediately after progesterone supplemental ended. Even though the evidence for progesterone is mixed, I’m grateful that my providers view it as a low-risk intervention that can’t hurt, even if it doesn’t help. There are many women in my extended family who endured several miscarriages before this was an option, and I can’t help imagining how their lives could have been so dramatically different with a fairly simple hormone supplement.

I’m also fascinated by related theories about vitamin D supplementation preventing preterm birth. Is there any more research on this than progesterone?

Thanks for the HPV article. I can’t help but think there must have been some really poor marketing about the vaccine when it first came out. The implications of preteen sexual activity were a huge reason my parents balked at having me get it-it had nothing to do with concerns about efficacy or safety. Has this changed in recent years to focus more in the cervical cancer prevention? Doctors can do a lot of damage if they don’t respect your culture. Showing people data on HPV & cervical cancer rates among totally monogamous people who only had sex in the context of a committed relationship (and the impact of the vaccine) probably would be more helpful than basically insulting parents beliefs about their teens’ potential behavior, even if sexual activity is statistically common.

Yes. It was odd that this post did not link back to ParentData’s previous post that touched on FAM (though I think that was in the context of preventing pregnancy vs. trying to conceive). There are much better resources on observing fertility symptoms than the Planned Parenthood link that was included in this one. TCOYF should be first on the list.

Also, posts like today’s (from Gillian Goddard on preventing pregnancy indefinitely) need to be more inclusive of FAM options as well. There is a small but growing population of women who have turned away from hormonal/surgical contraception in recent years, including the time after their childbearing is done. If it’s because there is less data on these methods, perhaps ParentData can at least highlight the research gap.

You’d be surprised. My parents & in-laws are not nearly as bad as this, but it is truly frustrating and perplexing how they think that we our torturing our children if we are not offering them ice cream or snacks every 5 minutes (they are 4 & 1). I can understand grandparents wanting to indulge in the “fun” aspects of parenting more, but to take it to the opposite extreme where “spoiling” doesn’t even adequately describe things is confounding. Thankfully we only see my in-laws a couple times per year. But yes, some grandparents are shockingly committed to no rules with grandkids.

This is really intriguing. I was put on thyroid medication during my last pregnancy despite not having symptoms other than fatigue (a toddler and newborn will do that to you), and have been curious if the testing could have been off, because I honestly think the medication did absolutely nothing (unsurprisingly my exhausting improved once my baby was sleeping through the night; still no other symptoms), and I don’t like being medicated needlessly. It never occurred to me that prenatals could have had any effect on the testing.

Another upvote. The great comment threads were a huge reason I used to love reading ParentData. I also appreciate the ability to keep most of my newsletter reading separate from email, which Substack does brilliantly. Now I end of deleting most of the ParentData newsletters without reading. Going to a separate site is too annoying- it just means I’ll replace this reading with something readily available in Substack. Please bring back the old threads!