Check, J. H., Rankin, A., & Teichman, M. (1986). The risk of fetal anomalies as a result of progesterone therapy during pregnancy. Fertility and Sterility, 45(4), 575-577. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0015-0282(16)49292-7
Check JH, Rankin A, Teichman M. The risk of fetal anomalies as a result of progesterone therapy during pregnancy. Fertil Steril. 1986;45(4):575-577. doi:10.1016/s0015-0282(16)49292-7
Check, Jerome H., et al. "The risk of fetal anomalies as a result of progesterone therapy during pregnancy." Fertility and Sterility, vol. 45, no. 4, 1986, pp. 575-577.
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Birth defects occurred in 1.3% of babies after early progesterone
A 1986 survey asked 382 women about their pregnancies. Each woman had past ovulation problems and started progesterone soon after ovulation. Five infants had birth defects, an incidence of 1.3%. Every woman in the survey took progesterone.
Key Findings
Questionnaires went to 475 women with previous ovulation problems who took supplemental progesterone and conceived in 1983. Responses came from 382 women.
Five women reported birth defects in their infants, an incidence of 1.3%. All five infants had different defects.
Four of the five infants with defects were born to women who used vaginal progesterone alone. The fifth was born to a woman who also took 17-hydroxyprogesterone.
One of 133 women treated with clomiphene citrate and 1 of 93 treated with human menopausal gonadotropins had an infant with a defect.
Three of 156 women who took no ovulation drugs had an infant with a defect.
Interpretation
This survey study followed 382 of 475 women with past ovulation problems. They took progesterone after ovulation and conceived in 1983. The authors compared their birth-defect rate to earlier published series. They call the difference between the two treatment groups not statistically significant. They read the results as supporting the relative safety of both medications. The findings support further, larger study of progesterone's safety in early pregnancy.
RRM Context
Progesterone started after ovulation fits the restorative principle of supporting the cycle's own timing, as used in NaProTechnology. A 1977 FDA warning grouped synthetic progestins with progesterone. The authors cite an earlier study of synthetic progestins. Their patients took progesterone. Some also took a second form.
Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.
Abstract
The incidence of congenital anomalies in infants born to 382 women treated with P was noted. Only five anomalies occurred in the infants born to women who had taken P. This study supports the data of Rock et al. by demonstrating a similar low incidence of birth defects in a much larger series of patients who also took a much higher dosage of P. Similarly, because only 1 of 189 patients treated with both P and 17-OHP developed anomalies, the data supports the study by Katz et al., suggesting no increase in anomalies related to 17-OHP therapy.
