Salivary Progesterone

Salivary progesterone is a measure of progesterone taken from a saliva sample instead of from blood. Progesterone passes into saliva, so a woman can collect a sample at home each day. A daily series traces the whole rise and fall of the luteal phase.

That daily picture is the value. One study followed 41 women labeled with unexplained infertility across 129 cycles. Ovulation looked normal in nearly 94 percent of the cycles. A weak luteal phase still turned up in 17 percent of the ovulatory ones.¹ The authors judged a salivary profile a better guide to corpus luteum function than basal temperature or one mid-luteal blood draw.¹

Saliva testing is not in wide use today. The point it proves still holds: one value on one day can miss a luteal problem.