Daily levels of salivary progesterone during menstrual cycle in adolescent girls

Abstract

To study the daily levels of salivary progesterone (P) during the menstrual cycles of adolescent girls 14 to 19 years of age and the occurrence of anovulations and defective luteal phases. The salivary P levels were analyzed by radioimmunoassay from three age groups of girls (n = 65) and compared with groups of 20 to 25 years (n = 14) and 25 to 43 years old women (controls, n = 19). One cycle per subject was used in the analyses. The randomly selected healthy schoolgirls were devided into three groups according to their postmenarcheal years: 1 to 2, 3 to 4, and 5 to 6 years (n = 15, 29, and 21, respectively). The youngest group had longer cycles and follicular phases than the older ones, but their mean luteal phase parameters did not differ. Interestingly, signs of temporary derangement of corpus luteum (CL) function (e.g., suppressed P secretion parameters) were observed in the group of 3 to 4 years. In the young adults (20 to 25 years old), the mean P secretion parameters did not differ significantly from the controls. There were more anovulatory cycles in the adolescent groups (25% to 33%) and in young adults (29%) than in controls (0%). About one third of the cycles are anovulatory from the age of 14 and 15 up to 20 to 25 years. In contrast to earlier findings, CL usually functions fully even in the first ovulatory cycles. Transient disturbances in luteal phase P secretion are most common 3 to 4 years after menarche.