Lubion IVF drug & progesterone side effects - heavy bleeding during pregnancy
Progesterone pessaries or injections are usually offered in IVF cycles to 'support the lining of the endometrium by providing a nutrient-rich environment' and I am sure for some women it does offer some benefit.
However there are some quite serious side effects to be aware of, here is a PDF link to Lubion's own list of side effects (other progesterone drugs may work in the same way you'd need to consult each manufacturers website for more details): https://d1xe1hlfdw46r9.cloudfront.net/lubion/Lubion%20uk-spc-vial-clean.pdf
You may notice one of the most common side effects is: 'vaginal haemorrhaging' affecting >1/10 women! (Greater than one in ten!)
I'll attach the PDF to this post also for ease.
Our story
We followed our specialists advice (Guy's St Thomas, London, UK) to take one injection per day (25mg) sub-cutaneous for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Fairly shortly after taking Lubion for a month or so very heavy bleeding was noticed. Our specialist said 'In cases like this, we advise to double-dose on Lubion that should resolve it'
So we did as suggested.. and my wife and baby nearly died from blood loss. At this stage we at least did our due-diligence (all-be-it later than was ideal) and checked the manufacturers website for side-effects and sure-enough 'vaginal haemorrhaging' is very common - just imagine what effect double-dosing would have! And we stopped Lubion completely. It's worth mentioning our specialist said 'Lubion definitely did not cause this' - in our opinion it did! (Our specialist also mentioned they had not read the manufacturers list of known side-effects)
Fortunately my wife managed to get multiple blood transfusions & iron injections - but it was touch and go for a while. There may be families not so lucky.
Other health impacts
Our baby was born with a sacral dimple (minor birth defect)- which can (I believe) be caused by blood loss/ lack of nutrients - we'll never really know if that was caused by the Lubion double-dosing.
So I wrote this post to see if we were alone in this experience, or has anyone else had a similar experience with Lubion or other progesterone drug and also if there were similar birth defects so we can start to understand the true impact on families. (positive or negative). And also to generate some more exact stats/ numbers and raise general awareness of side-effects of progesterone to be aware of so no-one else has to go through what we did as a family.
Lubion uk-spc-vial-clean.pdf
PDF Document