Estrogen Levels May Allow Docs to Predict and Prevent Preterm Labor
Friday, April 3, 2009 14:33The trigger for the start of labor has been a mystery, but new research which will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) has yielded very important information about the interaction of hormones and the onset of labor. Researchers in Australia have found that the relative levels of two forms of estrogen, estradiol (E2) and estriol (E3), are involved in causing women to go into labor.
Researchers studied 500 pregnant women, and found that that the ratio of E3 to E2 rose rapidly as labor approached. When the levels of E2 and E3 were roughly the same, there was no drive for labor.
In a previous study, these researchers found that a placental hormone, corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH), peaks at the time of labor and that CRH levels rise earlier in women who deliver prematurely. Now, they have also shown that CRH can act on the adrenal glands of the fetus, causing them to produce a steroid hormone which the placenta then uses to make E3. There is a strong correlation between CRH and E3 levels in the mother’s blood in the weeks before birth, which further supports the belief that CRH increases E3 levels.
While more studies are required to validate these findings, there are several important implications for this study. It is possible that monitoring the levels of E2 and E3 in the blood could allow doctors to identify women who are going to go into preterm labor. Then, they could supplement hormones to bring the levels back into balance and potentially prevent a woman from going into labor. On the flip side of the coin, E3 could also be given to induce labor.
“Patterns of Plasma Corticotrophin-Releasing Hormone, Progesterone, Estradiol and Estriol Change and the Onset of Human Labor,” will appear in the June 2009 issue of JCEM.
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