Full-Length Pregnancy: Progesterone product may reduce premature births
By Nathan Seppa
A therapy first tried in the 1960s can both extend a pregnancy in a woman who is at risk of giving birth prematurely and reduce a newborn’s risk of complications, a new study finds. The drug, 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17P), is a natural metabolic product of the female hormone progesterone. In previous small-scale tests, it showed mixed results.
For the new study, researchers enrolled 463 pregnant women who had delivered a previous child prematurely–after an average of 31 weeks. A full-term pregnancy lasts 40 weeks, and a delivery is considered premature if it occurs before 37 weeks. Being born even a few weeks ahead of schedule can slow a child’s development.