Daily monitoring of gonadal glucuronides in urine for studies of menstrually-related changes

Abstract

Recently there has been growing evidence on the involvement of gonadal hormones and their changes, in the pathophysiology of menstrually related mood changes. For monitoring daily fluctuation in levels of these hormones, plasma single-point determination is probably not representative due to the episodic nature of secretion and 24-h urine collections are too cumbersome for long monitoring periods. Determinations of urinary gonadal glucuronides in a first morning void might overcome both these drawbacks. We compared urinary first morning void estrogen glucuronides and pregnanediol glucuronide, to their homologues in plasma, estradiol and progesterone, during the entire menstrual cycle as well as during shorter periods of greater fluctuation in order to determine applicability of this method. Correlation between plasma levels of estradiol and progesterone and first morning urine levels of estrone glucuronide and pregnanediol glucuronide was highly significant for the whole menstrual cycle. The correlation between plasma levels of progesterone and first morning urine levels of pregnanediol glucuronide was insignificant during the follicular phase and around midcycle. The correlation between plasma levels of estradiol and first morning urine of estrone glucuronide was insignificant during late luteal phase. Urinary first-void measurement of gonadal hormones glucuronides is simple, rapid and adequate for the evaluation of ovarian function but only during the whole menstrual cycle and will probably increase compliance when long-term monitoring of ovarian function is indicated