Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Sklar, the Fertility Expert and welcome to Fertility TV.  In this episode we’re going to be talking about Provera and its impact on fertility so if you’ve thought about Provera and what it can do for you, then stayed tuned.

I often get questions, and for whatever reason I’ve been getting a lot of questions recently about the use of Provera and fertility.  So let me answer a little bit about it.

In a previous video I did discuss the use of Progesterone on fertility treatments, and just so there’s no confusion, Provera is Progesterone.  So kind of to reiterate some of the things that I have mentioned in the past, the first thing is to recognize if you need it. So you do need to do some testing to see if you have a deficiency of Progesterone, especially in the second half of your cycle and if it would be important and impactful and useful for you.

Then second, the common question is when to use it.  So you know I’m not…my preference when it comes to fertility treatments is doing things naturally.  Some people may view the use of Provera or Progesterone as natural, and some might not, I think it really just depends on how it’s used and in what form.  So once you do figure out if you need it with some testing, and you decide that that’s something that you need, you do need to consult with whatever practitioner you’re working with to have that conversation about when’s the best time to use it for them…or for you, and how to incorporate it. 

For me I think the best time to use it is before you get pregnant because you really already want the Progesterone to be in your system to help hold a pregnancy.  So that’s in a perfect scenario, but oftentimes it doesn’t happen so worst-case scenario you can add it later, I just don’t find it to be as effective.  The only…or one of the main drawbacks from using something like Progera…Provera or Progesterone is that if you do put it in after you ovulate oftentimes it’s going to prevent you from menstruating, so you will have to take a pregnancy test every cycle to see if you are pregnant to decide if you come off of it or not.  It can also give you side effects and…and the side effects, depending on your dosage, can be great and make you feel like you’re pregnant, but you can’t trust that because of the increased progesterone you’re going to have symptoms as if you are pregnant – increased breast tenderness, bloating, fatigue, potentially nausea, so it’s not to be confused and I wouldn’t get overly excited about being pregnant if you have those until you actually take a pregnancy test..

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