Bridging progestogens in pregnancy and pregnancy prevention.

Abstract

Steroid hormones have been in use for more than a half a century as contraceptive agents, and only now are researchers elucidating the biochemical mechanisms of action and non-target effects. Progesterone and synthetic progestins, critical for women's health in the US and internationally, appear to have important effects on immune functioning and other diverse systems. Apart from the contraceptive world is a separate field that is devoted to understanding progesterone in other contexts. Based on research following a development timeline parallel to hormonal contraception, progesterone and 17-hydroxyprogesterone caproate are now administered to prevent preterm birth in high-risk pregnant women. Preterm birth researchers are similarly working to determine the precise biochemical actions and immunological effects of progesterone. Progesterone research in both areas could benefit from increased collaboration and bringing these two bodies of literature together. Progesterone, through actions on various hormone receptors, has lifelong importance in different organ systems and researchers have much to learn about this molecule from the combination of existing literatures, and from future studies that build on this combined knowledge base.