What does progesterone do?

During pregnancy, a woman's body is very special, and there are many things she cannot eat, such as cold water, cold drinks, tea and soda. In fact, it is best not to eat rice dumplings, because rice dumplings are yin food. Women have a yin constitution, not to mention that their constitution is even more special during pregnancy, so they cannot eat them. Of course, in addition to avoiding some foods, you absolutely cannot take any medicines. But some drugs are sometimes needed, such as progesterone.

When it comes to progesterone, not only men, but even most women probably don’t know anything about it. In fact, progesterone is a kind of pregnancy hormone secreted by women's ovaries and is necessary for pregnant women. So, what exactly does progesterone do? Let’s take a closer look.

Progesterone has a significant morphological effect on the estrogen-stimulated endometrium in vivo and is necessary for maintaining pregnancy. Progesterone is clinically used for reactive diagnosis of amenorrhea or causes of amenorrhea, such as threatened abortion and habitual abortion. Progesterone, also known as progesterone, has a certain effect in artificially adjusting the menstrual cycle.

Progesterone is effective in treating threatened abortion, habitual abortion, premenstrual syndrome, anovulatory functional uterine bleeding and anovulatory amenorrhea. In addition, progesterone also has a great effect on women in early pregnancy:

1. Progesterone inhibits uterine contractions

Some people believe that progesterone can change the permeability of the uterine muscle cell membrane to ions, causing the membrane to be in a hyperpolarized state, thereby reducing the excitability of the uterine muscle and at the same time reducing the sensitivity of the uterine muscle to various stimuli (especially oxytocin). Therefore, the pregnant uterus does not undergo violent and progressive contractions, the embryo is not affected, and the pregnancy is maintained. Based on this, progesterone is commonly used in clinical practice to maintain pregnancy. Some people hold the opposite opinion, believing that although the experiment proves that progesterone inhibits the excitement of uterine muscles, it is an in vitro condition and the dose used in the experiment far exceeds the physiological concentration. In addition, in the treatment of threatened abortion, progesterone was found to be as effective as placebo using a double-blind method.

2. Progesterone maintains the membrane removal reaction

Decidual cells are transformed from endometrial stromal cells and contain glycogen granules, which provide nutrition to the blastocyst. Injecting pregnant mice with "rabbit anti-mouse decidua serum" can cause miscarriage, indicating the importance of decidua in maintaining pregnancy. Removal of both ovaries of animals with pseudopregnancy decidual reaction can cause necrosis and liquefaction of the decidua; if exogenous progesterone is given, decidual degeneration can be prevented. It can be seen that progesterone is necessary to maintain the decidual reaction.

3. Progesterone suppresses immune response

The fertilized egg is a "semi-allogeneic transplant" (Semiallograft), but why is it not rejected by the mother's immune system when it implants? Some people have found that when certain tumor cells are transplanted into the uterine cavity of animals, the tumor cells are not rejected and implanted into the uterine wall only in animals injected with progesterone, indicating that progesterone can inhibit the immune response. By the same token, during a normal pregnancy, the increase in progesterone can prevent the embryo from being rejected by the mother and maintain the pregnancy. If there is insufficient progesterone, the embryo will be rejected by the mother as a foreign body, resulting in miscarriage.

To sum up, progesterone is essential for women during pregnancy, and its effect on pregnant women is quite significant. But one thing everyone must know is that progesterone is classified as a prescription drug by the State Food and Drug Administration. If we take progesterone on a regular basis, we must take it under the doctor's advice. Another thing everyone should understand is that progesterone has side effects, so it is generally best not to use it lightly.