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Notes: Forty nulliparous patients with a Bishop score of 3 or less were given 15 mg oestriol gel, 10 mg PGF2α gel or gel alone via the extra-amniotic route. Both the oestriol and prostaglandin treated patients had a significant increase in Bishop score and a significant reduction in induction-delivery interval compared to con-trols. Oestriol gel had significantly less stimulatory effect on uterine activity than prostaglandin gel, indicating a possible local action.

Notes: Urinary oestrogen and pregnanediol excretion was measured daily (“daily monitoring”) for a complete cycle in 20 normally menstruating women, in one patient with an anovulatory cycle and for 28 days in a patient with secondary amenorrhoea. The measurements were also performed on urine specimens collected at weekly intervals for 4 to 6 weeks (“weekly tracking”) from 506 patients with evidence of abnormal ovarian function. These included 9 patients with primary amenorrhoea, 132 patients with secondary amenorrhoea, 138 patients with oligomenorrhoea and 227 patients with evidence of ovarian dysfunction and cycle lengths of 25 to 42 days. The results were subjected to statistical analysis. In the normal cycles, ovulation could be identified on the criteria of a rising pregnanediol value reaching or exceeding 2.0 mg. per 24 hours for a period of 7 days or more. Valid conclusions on the overall mean oestrogen and pregnanediol values for a complete cycle could be made from the results of weekly tracking, irrespective of which day the tracking commenced. Correlations were obtained by comparing the mean and maximum urinary oestrogen values and the variability of the values with the evidence of ovarian function indicated by the clinical classifications of the patients, the duration of the disorders and the subsequent occurrence of uterine bleeding. Mean oestrogen values of 10μ g. per 24 hours or less were associated with lack of ovarian function. For values higher than this a discriminant function based on both the mean oestrogen value and the variability of the oestrogen values was useful in predicting onset of spontaneous menstruation. A single urine specimen collected 4 to 8 days before onset of menstruation showing a raised pregnanediol value of 2.0mg. per 24 hours or more provided a valid test for ovulation in women with regular cycles, and a single urine specimen giving an oestrogen value of 10 pg. per 24 hours or less gave a valid indication of absent ovarian function in women with amenorrhoea for two years or more. In all other circumstances serial sampling at weekly intervals provided a valid assessment of ovarian activity. Application of these principles allows the greatest amount of information on ovarian function to be obtained with the greatest economy of effort.

Notes: Serum prolactin levels and urinary oestrogen and pregnanediol excretion were measured during early pregnancy in 12 hyperprolactinaemic subjects who became pregnant during treatment with bromocriptine. Prolactin levels were suppressed below normal whilst taking the bromocriptine, but rose significantly when this drug was stopped and by eight weeks of gestation reached values significantly higher than those observed in normal pregnancy. Further increases in prolactin levels were, however, not observed. Urinary oestrogen and pregnanediol excretion was initially normal but, following cessation of bromocriptine, urinary pregnanediol excretion decreased and was significantly less than normal at 11 to 14 weeks gestation. These results suggest that elevated prolactin levels affect corpus luteum function of early pregnancy. Because the effect is maintained until at least 14 weeks gestation, prolactin may also affect progesterone production by the placenta.

Notes: Urinary oestrogen and pregnanediol excretion in 102 women who had a curettage for postmenopausal bleeding was correlated with the histological appearance of the endometrium, with age and with weight, and were compared with the values obtained in 42 normal postmenopausal women. The 36 patients with proliferative and hyperplastic endometrium and the 16 patients with endometrial carcinoma had significantly higher oestrogen excretion than the controls. The 27 patients with atrophic endometrium had only slightly higher mean oestrogen values than the controls. Twenty-three patients had taken hormones and the 20 patients who bled during treatment had the same urinary hormone values as the controls (excluding three patients with ovarian and/or endometrial carcinoma). The ovaries were examined in 37 patients who had a total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. Significantly higher oestrogen values were found in those patients with ovarian tumours in which the stroma showed hyperplasia. When an ovarian tumour was associated with normal stroma or when the ovary showed cortical stromal hyperplasia without a tumour, urinary hormone values were normal. Oestrogen excretion and age were not related, but a correlation was found between oestrogen excretion and body weight.

Notes: Six tubal ectopic pregnancies occurred in a series of 193 pregnancies following ovulation induced with human pituitary gonadotrophin (hPG) and human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG). The ectopic pregnancy rate of 3.1 per cent is higher than quoted incidences in the general population and occurred in the absence of predisposing factors. There was an association between ectopic pregnancy and elevated urinary oestrogen excretion in the peri-ovulatory phases of the induced ovulatory cycles. A urinary oestrogen excretion of greater than 200 μg/24 hours on day 0 (the day after hCG was given) was associated with a 10 per cent chance of ectopic pregnancy (P 〈0.05).

Notes: Basal serum levels of prolactin were measured in 37 infertile anovulatory patients who had failed to conceive on therapy with clomiphene citrate. Twenty of these patients, 16 of whom had galactorrhoea, had elevated basal serum prolactin values which were suppressed to normal or subnormal values during therapy with bromocriptine, the most commonly effective dose being 2·5 mg twice daily. Ovulation, as assessed by urinary oestrogen and pregnanediol measurements, was induced in 17 of these patients with pregnancy in 14. Ovarian responses short of defined criteria for ovulation were induced initially in eight patients, but these progressed to full ovulatory responses in five patients, either on the same or increased doses of bromocriptine. In all the patients who ovulated, the prolactin levels had been reduced below the mean value for normal women (10·6 ng-ml). The three patients who failed to ovulate all had values higher than this at a dose of bromocriptine reaching 5·0 mg thrice daily. There seemed to be no value in increasing the dose of bromocriptine once ovulation had been achieved. Of the 17 patients with normal basal prolactin values, only one had an unequivocal response to bromocriptine with ovulation and conception, even though the prolactin values in the majority were suppressed to below normal.