Progesterone Table of Contents Test Overview Why It Is Done How to Prepare How It Is Done How It Feels What Affects the Test? Test Overview
A progesterone test measures the amount of the hormone progesterone in a blood sample. Progesterone is a female hormone produced by the ovaries during release of a mature egg from an ovary (ovulation). Progesterone helps prepare the lining of the uterus ( endometrium ) to receive the egg if it becomes fertilized by a sperm. If the egg is not fertilized, progesterone levels drop and menstrual bleeding begins.
During pregnancy, the placenta also produces high levels of progesterone, starting near the end of the first trimester and continuing until the baby is born. Levels of progesterone in a pregnant woman are about 10 times higher than they are in a woman who is not pregnant.
Some types of cancer cause abnormal progesterone levels in men and women.
Why It Is Done
• Monitor the success of medicines for infertility or the effect of treatment with
• Help determine whether ovulation is occurring. • Assess the risk of miscarriage. • Monitor the function of the ovaries and placenta during pregnancy. • Help diagnose problems with the adrenal glands and some types of cancer.
How to Prepare
You may be asked to stop taking medicines (including birth control pills) that contain estrogen or progesterone, or both, for up to 4 weeks before having a progesterone test.
Talk to your doctor if you have undergone any tracer test(which includes radioactive material) in the last seven days . As tests such as a thyroid scan or bone scan that used a radioactive tracer can interfere with the test results.
How It Is Done
The health professional (phlebotomist) drawing blood will:
• Wrap an elastic band (tourniquet) around your upper arm to stop the flow of
blood. This makes the veins below the band larger so it is easier to put a needle into the vein.
• Clean the needle site with alcohol. • Put the needle into the vein. More than one needle stick may be needed. Attach
a tube to the needle to fill it with blood.
• Remove the band from your arm when enough blood is collected. • Apply a gauze pad or cotton ball over the needle site as the needle is removed. • Apply pressure to the site and then a bandage
A progesterone test measures the amount of the hormone progesterone in a blood sample.
Results are usually available within 24 hours.
Normal values for progesterone vary from lab to lab.
For Result Range please refer Test Report.
High values
High progesterone values may be caused by:
• Pregnancy. • Cancer of the ovaries or adrenal glands. • A molar pregnancy. • Overproduction of hormones by the adrenal glands.
Low values
Low progesterone values may be caused by:
• Problems with ovulation. • Possible miscarriage. • For Result Range please refer Test Report.
What Affects the Test?
Reasons you may not be able to have the test or why the results may not be helpful include:
• The use of hormones, including those containing estrogen or progesterone (such
• The time of day when you have the test. Progesterone levels normally fluctuate
• Exercise. • Having a test such as a thyroid scan or bone scan that used a radioactive
substance (tracer) within 1 week before the progesterone test.
• Menstural Cycle affects the readings of the test.
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