Progesterone doesn't prevent pre-term birth

A study has shown that vaginal progesterone administration, used to prevent women giving birth too early, is sadly not associated with a reduced risk of pre-term birth.

The study, published in The Lancet, involved more than 1200 women who were considered to be at an increased risk of premature delivery, because of a previous pre-term birth or because they had lost a baby late in pregnancy.  Half of the women were given progesterone while the rest received a placebo pill.  The team found that treatment with progesterone made no difference to premature birth rates and offered no notable health benefit either to mothers or babies.

To read the research abstract see here

For more on this story see the RCM article here