Early Miscarriage & Adderall & Progesterone ?

Prescription is: Adderall 15mg XR (extended release)

This might be a long shot, I can’t find any information about situations like this but maybe someone else out there has experienced the same thing and it would bring me a lot of comfort just to get all my thoughts out of my brain.

I am 27 years old with one living child. I got pregnant with my daughter when I was 21 the same month off of the pill after being on birth control for 8 years. I realize how incredibly lucky that was. I wasn’t on any other medications at this time. pregnancy was difficult on my body, I ended up having an emergency C-section with complications for me and my baby, which resulted in a lot of emotional trauma. Husband and I were unsure for years if we’d want have another child after the experience.

This year we decided we wanted to expand our family. I stopped taking my birth control pill in March (same one I was taking as before) and also stopped taking my adderall (under the supervision of my provider) that I have been taking for 3 years for adhd and anxiety. I decided to try to track ovulation since I had no idea what my cycle would be like coming off of it again, I was older my body had been through a lot but I was overall healthy, 5”3, 145lbs, exercising regularly, no major health diagnoses.

The first month, March, I had two instances where my LH started to peak but never got an actual positive, and got my period.

The next month, April, I took Vitex only this month, in the first half of my cycle in an attempt to kickstart my hormones. I received a peak and confirmed ovulation with temp, but got my period again. My periods were pretty light and only lasting 3-4 days. I suspected I might be experiencing a mild case of Post Pill PCOS based on some symptoms I had as well as the lightness of menstruation.

After two months of being off of my adderall and no success TTC I was feeling discouraged because it had happened so quickly for me the first time, I know people try for much longer and have much harder stories TTC but based on my own past

experiences I was becoming frustrated and losing trust in my body. I decided to start taking my adderall again in May for some mental support and figured I could cross the bridge of getting off of it if I became pregnant. And my PCP who is my prescription provider even assured me that I could stay on it if I was pregnant with the guidance of the obgyn. When I went in to have my prescription refilled I also expressed to my PCP that I suspected my progesterone was low based on some other symptoms I was experiencing. She basically brushed me off and said if I’m still not pregnant in 6 months she’ll test my hormones since it had only been a few months of being off the pill, which I get, but also I am someone who is very in tune with my body. I don’t go to the doctor very often unless I truly know there is something wrong that needs to be addressed.

On June 9th one day before my husband and I’s 7 year wedding anniversary (we’ve been together for 13 years since high school) I received a positive pregnancy test. The expected due date was my husband’s birthday. We felt like it was a sign from the universe that it was finally our turn again. My tests were getting darker.

Adderall treats my anxiety in a way that I never expected it could. Without it my brain has 50 anxious thought tabs open at any given moment, I’m able to fall asleep in 5 minutes where as before I’d lay in bed for a hour or more trying to turn my brain off and try to go to sleep. Its benefited my life greatly to be able to be more present for my family.

I made the correlation that possibly on the Adderall my dopamine and serotonin levels are higher, resulting in less cortisol and less stress hormones in my body which helped raise my hormone levels to help me conceive. I was also due for a refill of my adderall prescription the same week so I sent a message to my provider on Monday telling her that I received a positive pregnancy test and that I didn’t want to stay on the adderall during the entire pregnancy but I would like for her to slowly start weaning me off the next few weeks so that my body could adjust. I want to make it a point that I did not care how I would feel mentally being off of my medication. I was ok with “struggling” without it. But I felt like stopping it abruptly would plummet my hormones. She responded advising me to stop the medication “cold turkey”. Which immediately in my gut I was extremely worried about. I can’t explain it but looking back.. I knew, I knew that stopping it would make me lose my baby. I followed up with another message explaining to her that I was very concerned and afraid that something so sudden and such a harsh change would cause me to miscarry. No matter the dosage on a prescription like adderall you will experience a level of “withdrawal” and that means an increase in stress and stress hormones to your body.

I told her I was seeing my obgyn in only four days from our conversation and that I would consult with them asap but would she please just lower my dose and help me to wean off.

She refused.

I was out of my prescription so I really had no choice but to stop abruptly. I had so much anxiety and frustration feeling like I wasn’t being heard. But I was holding on to hope that it would be fine and I was probably over reacting and being overly anxious and there probably was no correlation. I’m not a medical professional after all.

I went to my obgyn appointment 4 days later and the did early blood work I was estimated to be 4 weeks and 5 days at that point and my beta HCG was 198.7 and my progesterone was 6.75. LOW. My progesterone was very low. My obgyn immediately prescribed me a progesterone supplement of 200mg.. but when I saw those results on MyChart I knew in my heart it was already too late for those to help. I was taking the progesterone but I could see my at home tests getting lighter. I wasn’t as nauseous. I knew.

They rechecked my HCG Monday morning which confirmed it had went down.

My biggest fear was coming true.

Even though it’s considered a “chemical pregnancy” it’s still an early miscarriage. It’s still a loss. A loss that I begged my doctor to help me prevent.

It’s such an awful situation to have to tell your doctor “I told you so”.

I feel that my situation is unique and isn’t the normal case scenario for people taking adderall who are TTC. I know that the underlying issue is that I have low progesterone levels. But I truly believe that in my situation the adderall was helping my hormones to be elevated enough.

Three days later from the lowered blood results and I just started bleeding. The sadness, the anger, the frustration, the obsessive thoughts of “what if” are consuming me. “What if she would have just let me stay on it just a little longer?” “What if I never started taking it again this month, would I still have gotten pregnant?” “What if I never have a successful pregnancy again?”

If you read to the end thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am in the trenches right now. I feel lucky to have an amazing support system who as doing everything they possibly can to make this easier for me. I wish I could be resilient and positive right now but I just can’t.

If you have success stories of getting pregnant after a chemical pregnancy alongside low progesterone issues they are very welcome.