Shearman, R. P., & Garrett, W. J. (1963). Double-blind study of effect of 17-hydroxyprogesterone caproate on abortion rate. British Medical Journal, 1(5326), 292-295. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.5326.292
Shearman RP, Garrett WJ. Double-blind study of effect of 17-hydroxyprogesterone caproate on abortion rate. Br Med J. 1963;1(5326):292-295. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.5326.292
Shearman, R. P., and W. J. Garrett. "Double-blind study of effect of 17-hydroxyprogesterone caproate on abortion rate." British Medical Journal, vol. 1, no. 5326, 1963, pp. 292-295.
Progestogen injections showed no miscarriage benefit in 50 women, 1963
About 2 out of 10 women miscarried in each group in a 1963 double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 50 women with two or more miscarriages in a row and low or falling levels of a urine marker of progesterone. One solution held a synthetic progestogen, the other a placebo. The authors wrote that the study was continuing.
Key Findings
Of 50 women treated, 10 miscarried, an overall rate of 20%.
Solution A: 5 of 27 women miscarried (18.5%). Solution B: 5 of 23 women miscarried.
Pregnanediol excretion returned to normal in every woman whose pregnancy reached viability, whichever solution she received.
Treatment began a mean of 6.4 days after the qualifying urine result in women who miscarried and 6.5 days in those who did not.
Of six miscarriage specimens examined, four were grossly abnormal: three blighted ova and one fetus with an exomphalos.
Interpretation
Sydney doctors ran a double-blind trial in women with repeated miscarriages and signs of low progesterone output. The two groups had close miscarriage rates. The authors wrote that the results did not so far support progestogen treatment as a specific way to prevent miscarriage. They reasoned that the falling marker and the miscarriage may share one cause. The authors note the series took over three years to collect and the study was continuing.
RRM Context
The injected drug was a synthetic progestogen, which differs from the body's own progesterone. The trial selected women by a urine marker, and the authors described the basic cause of miscarriage as still unknown. Restorative reproductive medicine starts with that question and looks for the cause of each woman's loss first.
Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.
