ON THE CONVERSION OF INTRAVENOUSLY ADMINISTERED PROGESTERONE TO PREGNANEDIOL IN THE HUMAN FEMALE*

Abstract

The amt. of intraven. adminstered progesterone converted to pregnanediol in 24 hrs. following a single injn., or during the course of the 1st day of continous admn., was 5-6%, both in a group 9 patients with cervical carcinoma and in a group of 9 noncancerous normal young women. This lack of difference in conversion percentages may indicate that the cervical carcinoma patients metabolized progesterone in a normal manner. During the course of continous intraven. admn. of progesterone in daily doses of 100 to 500 mg. for 9 to 12 days, although pregnanediol excretion tended to rise during the early part of admn. it showed a tendency to reach a plateau, as early as the 2nd day. There was no difference in the conversion percentage of progesterone to pregnanediol in relation to the dose of progesterone, although the pregnanediol collected for 24 hrs. following a single injn. or during a single days admn. of progesterone tended to be half of all the pregnanediol collected following a course of continuous intraven. admn. of progesterone. Plotted as semilog coordinates, the excretion of pregnanediol during the period of progesterone withdrawal was a straight line with time, indicating the possibility that the conversion rate of progesterone to pregnanediol was a constant, of the nature of a 1st-order reaction.