Q: Was low progesterone the cause of my miscarriage?
A: Statistics show that the chance of having a healthy pregnancy is the same for a woman who had one miscarriage when compared with a woman who did not have a miscarriage. Many women focus on low progesterone (luteal phase defect) as the cause of a miscarriage when in fact it's usually not the cause but an indication that the pregnancy is already failing. Increasing the progesterone is unlikely to make a difference. The cause of a miscarriage is usually a chromosome abnormality of the fetus, not a low progesterone level. In fewer than one in 20 women with recurrent miscarriages is a low progesterone level to blame. The American College of Ob-Gyn states: "... the association between LPD and recurrent pregnancy loss remains speculative."