Progesterone supplements are usually the go-to drug for women who have previously experienced miscarriages to avert the possibility of another unsuccessful pregnancy. However, there is a new research that proves that the supplements may not have the desired effect of preventing a miscarriage.
Progesterone is an important factor for the success of every pregnancy. The corpus luteum inside the ovary and the placenta produces the hormone over the course of the pregnancy. This is what Coomarasamy told in a report.
The study was conducted in two groups. The first group is composed of women who were administered progesterone treatments in their first trimester. The second group was given placebo.
A 65.8 percentage of the women maintained their pregnancy versus 63.3 percentages of placebo users.
The results of the research suggest that there is no significant difference in birth rates. The factors that the researchers noted about each participant are the medical history, pregnancy history, age, and ethnicity.
There were 826 women between 18-39 years old who participated in the study. Their conditions range from unexplained miscarriages, recurrent miscarriages, and actively trying to conceive. They were randomly chosen to use a vaginal supplement of progesterone or a placebo. This is until the 12th week of their pregnancy. This is according to the study from The New England Journal of Medicine.
"That 2.5 percent is an extremely tiny difference, and is not statistically significant," says Dr. Arri Coomarasamy. She is the lead author of the research.
It could mean that the difference is not from pure fact, but rather attributed to chance.
"Based on previous studies, we had hoped that progesterone would help to increase the likelihood of [having] a baby for women with a history of recurrent miscarriage," Coomarasamy reportedly told Live Science. "Our findings are bound to come as a disappointment to many thousands of women and couples affected by this condition."
"We will continue to explore and test other treatments," Coomarasamy added.
