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Previous Volume 357:499-501 August 2, 2007 Number 5 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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In 1930, Willard Allen and George Corner named the steroid hormone that they had extracted from rabbit ovaries "progestin" because they believed, rightly, that it helped maintain pregnancy.¹ Removal of progesterone, or blockage of its receptors, reliably ends pregnancy at all gestational ages, and in many nonhuman species, falling levels precipitate natural labor.² Progestins thus have been an obvious candidate treatment for the major health problem of preterm labor. Therapeutic studies in pregnancy have been limited because natural progesterone given orally is rapidly metabolized in the liver, and synthetic progestins that are not rapidly metabolized have androgenic effects, giving rise . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

From the Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Maternity Department, City Hospital, and University of Nottingham — both in Nottingham, United Kingdom.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Merialdi, M., Murray, J. C. (2007). The Changing Face of Preterm Birth. Pediatrics 120: 1133-1134 [Full Text]  
• (2007). Can Progesterone Prevent Preterm Birth in At-Risk Singleton Pregnancies?. JWatch Women's Health 2007: 2-2 [Full Text]  
• (2007). Can Progesterone Prevent Preterm Birth?. JWatch General 2007: 1-1 [Full Text]