What is the role of Progesterone therapy? This question has been in the realm of the medical world for decades but with the eminent group of researchers financed by the National Institutes of Health coming out with a definite answer resulting from an array of investigative study an innovative dimension is being perceived. It has been stated that the Progesterone therapy does not have the potential of reducing the likelihood of preterm birth in women pregnant with twins.   

However it is to be noted in the same esteem that a similar study was conducted in the earlier days that exhibited progesterone therapy diminishing the risk for preterm birth in another category of high-risk pregnant women. Among them those carrying a single baby who had delivered a single baby prematurely in the past were particularly specified.

While having a discussion with this correspondent over the credibility of the Progesterone therapy Dr. Duane Alexander, M.D. and Director of the NICHD, the premiere NIH institute responsible for funding said "This study shows that progesterone therapy is not beneficial for all women at risk for giving birth prematurely. So far, the evidence supports progesterone therapy as a means to reduce preterm birth only in women pregnant with a single baby who are at risk for premature delivery because of a prior preterm birth." Now what is Progesterone?  Progesterone is a female hormone that is produced in large quantities for the period of pregnancy. It was in the year 2003 when the researchers with the Maternal Fetal Medicine Units Network reported that weekly injections of progesterone were capable of plummeting the risk of preterm birth by 34 percent among pregnant women responsible for giving birth to premature babies in an earlier pregnancy. There had been in total 655 women in the study pregnant with twins. They were at random assigned for the receiving of weekly injections of a placebo or the form of progesterone known as 17-alpha hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17-OHPC). The application of injections were initiated at the time when the women were 16-20 weeks pregnant and it continued incessantly till the 35 th week of pregnancy or when the women gave birth. It has been learn t that in both the groups women had analogous characteristics for instance age, race, and marital status.

But strikingly even after the application of progesterone the researchers found that it was unable to reduce the propensity of premature birth in twin pregnancies if compared with the placebo group. In this specified group 41.5 percent of women on progesterone treatments delivered prematurely (before 35 weeks) or experienced fetal loss vs. 37.3 percent of women receiving placebo injections.