Hormone Therapy Shown to Prevent Pre-Term Births

A study has shown that injections of a progesterone-type hormone can prevent more than a third of pre-term births in women with a history of giving birth early. The results were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in San Francisco (CA, USA).

The study involved 463 women who had a history of giving birth before the 37th week of pregnancy. Two-thirds of the women received weekly injections of the drug 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone caproate, known as 17P, while one-third received a placebo. Treatment began at 16-18 weeks gestation and ended at 36 weeks. In women who received the drug, the risk of pre-term birth before the 37th week was reduced by 34%, while the pre-term birth risk prior to 32 weeks was reduced by 42%. Because of the dramatic effectiveness of the treatment, enrollment in the study was stopped early.

"This is the first well-documented demonstration of a successful treatment to reduce pre-term births in women at risk,” said Paul J. Meis, M.D., national principal investigator and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (Winston-Salem, NC, USA), one of the participating centers. "This drug is readily available and can be used by doctors to improve outcomes for mothers and babies.”

The women enrolled in the study were treated at 19 centers that are members of the Maternal Fetal Medicine Units Network of the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.




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