Progesterone-induced fever?

[Annie_777]

Hi, I'm 5 weeks pregnant. For the past week, I've been running a temp that varies between 99.2 and 101.5 (mostly in 100.4-100.9 range), slight sore throat, headache, chills, body ache, and no other flu/cold symptoms. No one around me is sick either.

Lab work showed high WBC, high platelet counts, high TNF-alpha level (TNFa has been elevated for >2mo since preconception).  My PCP/OB said it's a viral fever and asked me to ride it out, take Tylenol for pain and fever, there's no danger for baby.  

However, I'm not comfortable with such a prolonged fever in early pregnancy. I got pregnant from IVF/FET. My RE says the fever could be from progesterone supplements.  Ironically, my P4 level drops sharply when I ran the fever. My PCP said the P4 drop gotta be related to the fever.  

I need to stay on progesterone for another 7 weeks, and expect even higher level of P4 later on.  I'm on zpak, Decadron, and weekly intralipid infusion. Nothing stops the fever yet.  I can't imagine living with 8+ weeks of fever like this. But if I don't take p4, I will miscarry.  

Does this ever happen to anyone else?  Please share your thoughts on what I should do.  Thank you so much!

[Annie_777]

My fever broke after two weeks ago & I was dx'd with missed miscarriage last week.  Had D&C on 1/8. I'm waiting for placental immunopathology report.  My drs suspected fever, bleeding/SCH & mmc all due to abnormally elevated NK cells and activities.  So sad that this has happened.  

I've seen many women running fever, having cold-/flu- like symptoms for weeks during early pregnancy, only to find they lost their babies a couple week after. I wish more MDs invest in the clinical research of reproductive immunology and find a better treatment for patients like us...

Last year, I was dx'd with cancer, and I have to say that this pain is a thousand times worse than cancer dx (at least cancer research is well funded and always give you hope that if you hang in there, new drugs and clinical trials will come...).  This is a silent black hole - nobody understands, nobody cares to understand, ... I struggled to get my treatments and to find a dr who understand the immune issues related to infertility. When I finally found one, it didn't work for me.... :(

[Annie_777]

Just came back from ER last night... I had two bleeding episodes on 12/18 (5w6d). Beta on 12/16 was 6574, and beta on 12/20 was 6353. I thought for sure I had a missed m/c, went to urgent care, the dr agreed with my assessment but could not order u/s to verify... I was under so much distress that I stopped by ER and begging them for a TVUS. It turned out that my baby is doing great  - a strong EHR @130bpm at 6w1d. The dr said must be a lab error as their lab showed my beta in 8300s range. Feeling so much better now....

Was carrying the "threatened abortion" all the time dx for the past couple weeks.  Fever's getting better, my avg temp has come down from 100.5 to 99.5 (which I can accept as normal for pregnancy).  From what I read, it seems that the fever has something to do with my elevated natural killer cell activity.  Also, the NK abnormality might have affected my implantation site as well. My placenta is implanted literally next to the cervix. Dr suspected that the fundus and middle segments of my uterus have more blood vessels and thus more NK cells making it hard to implant. So I'm at risk for placenta previa, but that's sooooo much better and more manageable than threatened miscarriage!

Thanks for the reply!

[Dr Santos]

Hi,
How are you? Do you still have fever? How high was your white blood cell count?  I understand your concern and while it can be hormone related, it is best that you have regular prenatal consult especially if there is risk of miscarriage or infection. Drink plenty of fluids and strengthen your immune system with ascorbic acid or vitamins. Take care and do keep us posted.