PREGNANEDIOL EXCRETION IN NORMAL WOMEN*

Abstract

MANY previous workers (1–7) have reported observations on the urinary excretion of pregnanediol during the normal menstrual cycle. Most of the results recorded have been obtained by the method of Venning (8, 9) which isolates pregnanediol as the complex, sodium pregnanediol glucuronidate. Difficulties with the Venning method have led to the development of more sensitive, reliable procedures which isolate pregnanediol in the free state. Relatively few observations on pregnanediol excretion in the normal menstrual cycle have been made by such methods (10, 11). It is the purpose of this paper to present further measurements of the daily excretion of pregnanediol determined in the free state in normal menstrual cycles correlated with the basal body temperature and to discuss the significance of pregnanediol excretion. METHODS The pregnanediol determinations were done by a modification developed by Astwood, Grady, and Wermer (12) of the method reported by Astwood and Jones in 1941 (13). The details of the procedure are as follows: A twenty-four hour urine specimen was obtained. If the volume was more than 1500 cc, an aliquot was used.