Pregnanediol Output Research Articles

Incidence of ovulation in the years after the menarche.

Urine for the analysis of pregnanediol was collected weekly for 3 months from 209 menstruant women aged 11-24 years who lived with their parents and from 59 women aged 17-23 years who had left the parental home. Menstrual cycles were classed as ovulatory if the 24-h pregnanediol output in the 12 days preceding menstruation was greater than or equal to 5 mumol on a single occasion or if the total excreted on 2 days, 1 week apart, was greater than or equal to 7 mumol. In the first group, ovulatory incidence increased with menarchal age. Unfailing ovulation occurred in 22.9, 25.0, 44.8, 42.9, 63.2, 71.8 and 82.6% of those who were less than 1, 1- less than 2, 2- less than 3, 3- less than 4, 4- less than 5, 5-8 and 9-12 years from menarche. Comparable figures for the women who lived in flats and hostels were 40.0% (menarchal age, 5-8 years) and 78.6% (9-12 years). It is concluded that a regular pattern of ovulatory menstrual cycles is established in most young women within 5 years of the menarche, and that departure from the family home is often associated with a regression to a juvenile pattern of anovulatory menstrual cycles.

Incidence of ovulation in young women.

SummaryUrine was collected at weekly intervals for 3 months from 254 menstruant women aged 15–39 years, all of whom were 4 or more years from the menarche. Menstrual cycles were classed as ovulatory if the 24-hr pregnanediol output was 5 μmol or over on a single occasion, or if the total excreted on 2 days, 1 week apart, was 7 μmol or over. Of the 108 women aged 20–24 years, only 62% ovulated in every cycle compared with 88% for the 58 women aged 25–29 years, and 91% for the 44 women aged 30 or over. Unfailing ovulation occurred more often in non-students (99 women, of whom 83·5% ovulated in every cycle) than in age-matched students (111, 59·5%), and more often in women who lived with relatives (127, 83·5%) than in those living in flats and hostels (72, 51·4%).

Incidence of ovulatory cycles in women approaching the menopause

SummaryUrine was collected at weekly intervals at weekly intervals for three or more months from 139 menstruant women aged 40–55 years. Menstrual cycles were classed as ovulatory if the 24-hr pregnanediol output was > 5 μmol on a single occasion, or if the total excreted on 2 days 1 week apart was > 7 μmol. Of the 81 women who reported no change in menstrual frequency, 95% ovulated in every cycle. Only 34% of the 53 with a recent history of oligomenorrhoea ovulated without fail. Ovalation occurred in 93% of all 21–35-day menstrual cycles, in 55% of 36–50-day cycles, in 40% of 51–75-day cycles and in 17% of those lasting > 76 days. Pregnanediol increases suggestive of ovulation and followed by menstruation were observed on 31 occasions after amenorrhoea of from 2 to 6 months' duration.

Pituitary-gonadal interrelationships in pubertal female subjects.

ABSTRACT Hormone assays in urine were conducted serially in four girls for 28 to 78 days each year for a period of four or five years. Assays of the three classical oestrogens and pregnanediol were made throughout this time; total gonadotrophins were estimated during the first two years and FSH and/or LH in subsequent years. Oestrogen output rose gradually throughout, evidence of variation in hormonal activity being noted from the second year onwards. In two of the girls who menstruated in the fourth year, the pattern of oestrogen excretion was similar to that of adult women during reproductive life. Pregnanediol output was generally low, tended to rise with increasing age, and from the second year onwards levels fluctuated. Ovulation, as judged by pregnanediol assays, occurred in two out of the nine cycles studied. Total gonadotrophic activity was low in the first year and rose in the second. In the third year FSH output was at the lower end of the range of values occurring in young normally menstruating women and was within this range during the fifth year. LH activity was low when first estimated, rose slightly in the fourth year, and showed a typical adult pattern, including a midcycle peak, in the fifth. The investigation demonstrated a progressive rise in steroid and gonadotrophin output in pubertal female subjects as they increased in stature, developed secondary sex characteristics and approached the menarche; the increase was associated with marked fluctuations in hormonal activity well in advance of the first menstrual bleeding. The physiological significance of these bleedings is discussed, and it is emphasised that the study as a whole provides a useful framework for the investigation of pathological conditions occurring at or about the time of puberty.

Serum heat stable alkaline phosphatase in normal pregnancy and its relationship to urinary oestriol and pregnanediol excretion, placental weight and baby weight.

SummarySerial estimations of serum heat stable alkaline phosphatase (HSAP) were performed in 28 normal healthy primigravidae at 16, 20, 25, 30, 34 and 38 weeks gestation, during labour and in the puerperium. Serum HSAP was measured on a further 15 normal primigravidae at 30, 34 and 38 weeks. Urinary pregnanediol output was measured at 20, 25, and 30 weeks and urinary oestriol estimations made at 30, 34 and 38 weeks.There was a progressive increase in the level of serum HSAP with advancfing pregnancy, the peak being reached during the second stage of labour followed by a gradual fall ink the puerperium. There was no correlation between serum HSAP level and urinary pregnanediol output, crude baby weight or placental weight. Significnat degrees of correlation were demonstrated between serum HSAP level and urinary oestriol output at 30, 34 and 38 weeks.

Studies on sex hormone excretion in normal and hirsute women.

ABSTRACT Serial assays of testosterone, epitestosterone, oestrogens and pregnanediol in urine have been conducted in 11 hirsute patients and the results compared with those in 14 normally menstruating women. Overall mean levels for testosterone and epitestosterone were significantly higher in the hirsute group suggesting that excessive androgen production is of importance in the pathogenesis of this condition; significant differences in mean oestrogen and pregnanediol output between the two groups were not noted. In the hirsute subjects significant differences in urinary steroid excretion were not found between patients suffering from simple hirsutism and those in whom the excessive hair growth was associated with other pathological conditions. In both normal and hirsute groups steroid levels differed significantly between subjects and in individual women at different times. The incidence of anovulatory cycles was considerably higher in the hirsute than in the normal group.

ORAL PROGESTATIONAL AGENTS. EFFECTS OF LONG-TERM ADMINISTRATION ON HORMONE EXCRETION IN NORMALLY MENSTRUATING WOMEN

LORAINE, J. A.; BELL, E. T.; HARKNESS, R. A.; MEARS, ELEANOS; JACKSON, MARGARET C. N. Author Information

ORAL PROGESTATIONAL AGENTS. EFFECTS OF LONG-TERM ADMINISTRATION ON HORMONE EXCRETION IN NORMALLY MENSTRUATING WOMEN.

To assess the potential ability of synthetic progestational agents to alter hormonal interrelationships and interfere with the endocrine environment necessary for fertilization and nidation after long term use hormone assays were performed on 2 women during and immediately after long term use of Anovlar and 1 woman who used Conovid. 48 or 72 hour pools of urine were assayed and expressed as urinary estriol estrone estradiol prenanediol or pituitary gonadotropins per 24 hour sample. Ovarian activity and ovualtion were suppressed. There was not inhibition of pituitary function. The assay method used (the mouse-uterus test) was not sufficiently specific to determine whether there was a suppression of FSH or LH activities after cessation of medication; pregnanediol output rose in all 3 women in the luteal phase of the cycle indicating a return to an ovulatory pattern.

Recovery of injected progesterone and its relation to the onset of human labour.

THE conception that progesterone is the hormone responsible for the maintenance and therefore secondarily also for the onset of labour is based on several important findings: the indispensability of the corpus luteum for pregnancy in the rabbit1; the extraction of the effective substance from corpora lutea2; the role of progesterone in the implantation and early development of the fertilized ovum3; the excretion of progesterone as urinary pregnanediol and the relation between pregnanediol output and the prognosis of pregnancy4; finally, the elucidation of the mechanism of the endocrine control of the pregnant rabbit uterus5–7.

The excretion of pregnanediol and adrenocortical activity.

SUMMARY A new method of assay was applied to the determination of pregnanediol in urines from patients in whom the presence of a placenta or a corpus luteum could be excluded. The normal variation of pregnanediol content in such urines was examined. It was shown that operative stress or the intravenous administration of corticotrophin caused an increased output of pregnanediol. Quantitatively significant amounts of urinary pregnanediol could not be detected after adrenalectomy nor did adrenalectomized patients respond to corticotrophin by an increased pregnanediol output. It is considered that the adrenal contributes to the pregnanediol found in urine and that the determination of urinary pregnanediol may be of value in the study of adrenal function.

The effect of oxytetracycline in pregnancy complicated by glomerular nephritis: A case study

To a pregnant patient with chronic glomerular nephritis oxytetracycline has been orally administered in doses of 2 to 3.5 Gm. daily for periods of 3 days to 5 weeks. Its administration was started when the patient began showing an increased output of urinary protein at 20 weeks' gestation, it having been ascertained that this increase was not associated with any infectious process. From the twentieth to the thirty-fourth weeks of gestation, when pregnancy was terminated, the influence of terramycin upon albuminuria, the urinary metabolites of progesterone, urinary creatin, potassium, sodium, and fluid balance, upon tubular resorption of electrolytes, and upon serum nonprotein nitrogen, proteins, sodium, potassium, and chlorides was investigated. Terramycin therapy was periodically interrupted in order to be sure any changes observed were due to its administration. The experiment was repeated during the first 12 postpartum days. The following changes resulted from OTC administration during pregnancy: (1) decreased albuminuria and a rise in the albumin to globulin ratio of the serum; (2) increased creatinuria; (3) a rise in serum nonprotein nitrogen when more than 2 Gm. of Terramycin was given daily; (4) increased urinary output of potassium with a suggestive rise in the level of serum potassium and evidence for decreased tubular resorption of potassium; (5) diuresis at periods that had been preceded by fluid retention, with increased urinary output of sodium and evidence for decreased tubular resorption of sodium; (6) a change in the urinary metabolites of progesterone indicative of a more normal metabolism of available progesterone, and a marked increase in pregnanediol output coincident with a pronounced lowering of urinary protein.During the postpartum period the changes in creatinuria, nonprotein nitrogen, and the urinary output of fluid and electrolytes were equally marked during OTC administration. Albuminuria and the A-G ratio of serum proteins, however, were not significantly influenced at this time.