From ClevelandClinic.org:

Your corpus luteum produces the hormone progesterone that makes your uterus a healthy environment for a developing fetus. A new corpus luteum forms each time you ovulate and breaks down once you no longer need it to make progesterone. Without the corpus luteum, your uterus wouldn’t be able to make the changes needed for a fertilized egg to become a fetus.

Your corpus luteum is a completely normal cyst that forms on the ovary every single month in women of childbearing age. This cyst is actually a group of cells inside your ovaries that forms during each menstrual cycle. It appears right after an egg leaves your ovary (ovulation). Although it’s inside your ovaries, the corpus luteum’s job is to make your uterus a healthy place for a fetus to grow. It releases a hormone called progesterone that prepares your uterus for pregnancy. Once it’s no longer needed to make progesterone, your corpus luteum goes away.

Your corpus luteum forms after your ovaries release an egg and lasts just long enough to help your uterus support a developing fetus. To understand what your corpus luteum does, it helps to understand the phases of your menstrual cycle. Your corpus luteum becomes especially important in the third phase (luteal phase).

Small sacs inside your ovaries called follicles can create eggs (ova or oocytes). During the first 14 days of your menstrual cycle, a dominant follicle forms that’s bigger than the other follicles. An egg develops inside it. All the other follicles shrink and eventually disappear.

Luteinizing hormones cause the dominant follicle to release that egg. It takes anywhere from 1 to 2 days for the egg to leave the follicle.

The luteal phase lasts for about 14 days. After the egg has left the follicle, your corpus luteum starts to form from the materials that made up that follicle. Your corpus luteum produces the hormones estrogen and progesterone. Making progesterone is the corpus luteum’s most important job, though. Progesterone changes the uterus into a healthy environment for a fetus to develop and grow.

Progesterone:
•Makes your uterus bigger.
•Thickens the lining of your uterus (endometrium) so that a fertilized egg can embed there (implantation)
•Keeps your uterus supplied with enough oxygen and blood so that an egg can develop into a healthy fetus.

After it forms, your corpus luteum does one of two things:
•If the egg gets fertilized, your corpus luteum will release progesterone for about 12 weeks. Around week 12 in your first trimester of pregnancy, the organ that holds the developing fetus (placenta) will start to produce enough progesterone for the fetus so that the corpus luteum doesn’t need to anymore. The corpus luteum will get smaller and start to break down.

•If the egg doesn’t get fertilized, your corpus luteum will start to break down around 10 days after the egg leaves the dominant follicle. Without the progesterone, your uterus lining won’t go through the changes that support pregnancy. Instead, you’ll shed the lining during your period.

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