-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
JACOB KOTZ, ELIZABETH PARKER, MORTON S. KAUFMAN, Treatment of Recurrent and Threatened Abortion Report of Two Hundred and Twenty-six Cases, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 1, Issue 10, 1 October 1941, Pages 838–849, https://doi.org/10.1210/jcem-1-10-838
Close - Share Icon Share
Abstract
BECAUSE IT IS KNOWN to be physiologically essential in the inception and maintenance of pregnancy, the corpus luteum hormone has assumed a rôle of considerable importance in the treatment of conditions which threaten the premature termination of pregnancy, that is, habitual and threatened abortions. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the use of progesterone in such cases.
Fraenkel (1) in 1903 demonstrated that the removal of the corpus luteum in a rabbit shortly after fertilization causes failure of implantation of the embryo, or if the embryo is already implanted, leads to abortion. The findings were confirmed and extended in studies which led to the isolation of the corpus luteum hormone, progesterone. In 1929 Corner and Allen (2) reported that they had been able to maintain pregnancy in ovariectomizgd animals by the administration of the corpus luteum extract. Other workers since have amply demonstrated that the maintenance of pregnancy is essentially an endocrine phenomenon, dependent upon adequate production of progesterone. In the early weeks this is supplied by the corpus luteum of pregnancy whose normal function is dependent upon adequate stimulation by gonadotropic hormone. Later, at the end of the second month or the beginning of the third month of gestation the production of progesterone is taken over by the placenta. This period of transition is the critical period at which time abortion is most likely to occur. The fact that the removal of the corpus luteum after the third month does not always result in abortion has led to the supposition that progesterone is unnecessary. This supposition is no longer tenable for progesterone seems to be necessary for the maintenance of pregnancy throughout its duration (3).
