Chapter 24: Establishing Normal Hormone Levels

Hilgers TW

Reproductive Endocrinology · Ovarian Hormones

Chapter 24: Establishing Normal Hormone Levels

Hilgers TW

The Medical and Surgical Practice of NaProTECHNOLOGY, 285-292, 2004

RRM Academy Synopsis

Normal estradiol and progesterone levels are tied to ovulation timing

Normal estradiol and progesterone levels are tied to the timing of ovulation, argues this 2004 textbook chapter. The chapter sets reference values from 57 women whose ovulation daily ultrasound confirmed. All 57 were also infertile.

Key Findings

Daily ultrasound identified 57 spontaneous cycles that ended in a complete follicle rupture, which the chapter counts as an anatomically normal ovulation. Those cycles supply the reference values.
Values cover estradiol around ovulation, post-Peak progesterone and estradiol, mid-luteal androgens, thyroid hormones, prolactin, FSH and LH, plus day-5 FSH.
The estradiol and progesterone profiles list a mean and one standard deviation, plus sums and means. Their graphs split each profile into four zones.
A relative progesterone ratio divides each post-Peak progesterone level by that cycle's highest level. The chapter calls it helpful in diagnosing late luteal phase defect (Type III luteal phase deficiency).
The chapter says the values fit only the methods of one laboratory, the Pope Paul VI Institute's National Hormone Laboratory, and may differ elsewhere.

RRM Context

NaProTECHNOLOGY, developed by Dr. Thomas W. Hilgers, who wrote this chapter, schedules blood draws by the Peak day recorded on a CrMS chart, so every result has a known place in the cycle. Cycle-charting-informed evaluation is a shared principle across restorative reproductive medicine: a chart supplies the timing a hormone result needs. A draw taken on a calendar day carries no such anchor.

Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.

Abstract

This chapter sets out normal values for the targeted periovulatory estradiol profile and the post-Peak progesterone and estradiol profiles, derived from 57 patients whose spontaneous cycles showed an anatomically normal ovulation by ultrasound. Hilgers describes the usual laboratory reporting of wide follicular, ovulatory and luteal phase ranges as completely inadequate and presents normal levels specific to time-linked points in the rise and fall of each hormone. The chapter graphs each profile in four zones separated by one standard deviation from the mean and describes a relative progesterone ratio used in diagnosing a late luteal phase defect (Type III luteal phase deficiency). Hilgers states that these normal values apply only to the laboratory methods of the National Hormone Laboratory of the Pope Paul VI Institute, and notes that the control patients were themselves infertile.

Topics

Reproductive Endocrinology › Ovarian Hormones › Progesterone · Menstrual Cycle › Cycle Biomarkers › Hormonal Markers · Diagnostics › Hormone Testing › Timing of Testing

Thomas W Hilgers

Tom Hilgers, T Hilgers

Hilgers et al. 2004, Hilgers 2004

Chapter 24: Establishing Normal Hormone Levels

Normal estradiol and progesterone levels are tied to ovulation timing

Key Findings

RRM Context

Abstract

Topics

By this author

Related research