Assisted reproduction

Progesterone Testing

Why We Perform This Testing

  1. It identifies the fertile time for mating. At our clinic, progesterone testing is compulsory for an artificial insemination so we can identify the time of ovulation, increasing our chances of pregnancy. For natural matings we recommend progesterone testing to accurately identify the fertile time for a mating to occur.

  2. For an accurate prediction of a whelping date. Whelping dates can vary from 58 – 72 days after a natural mating, with the assistance of progesterone tests we can estimate the whelping date within 48 hrs either side of the date provided. Otherwise when progesterone testing is not performed, we rely heavily on the dam going into labour or daily progesterone testing in late pregnancy.

Method used

For timing inseminations, we use an in house ELISA assay and compare the sample with a full set of standards from 0.625 ng/ml up to 40 ng/ml. We measure all samples in duplicate. This method ensures an accurate result.