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Human Reproduction, Vol. 16, No. 12, 2540-2545, December 2001
© 2001 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology

Plasma prolactin/oestradiol ratio at 38 weeks gestation predicts the duration of lactational amenorrhoea

Carmen Campino1, Claudia Torres5, Alonso Rioseco2, Andrés Poblete2, Edda Pugin4, Verónica Valdés3, Silvia Catalán3, Cristián Belmar2 and María Serón-Ferré5,6

1 Departments of 1Endocrinología, 2 Obstetricia y Ginecología, 3 Pediatría, 4 Centro de Lactancia, Facultad de Medicina and 5 Department of Ciencias Fisiológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

BACKGROUND: Fully breastfeeding women experience an amenorrhoea of variable duration. Our aim was to identify in pregnancy, endocrine markers that could predict the duration of subsequent lactational amenorrhoea. METHODS: We studied 17 healthy women at 34 and 38 weeks gestation, and 1 and 3 months post-partum. The women fully breastfed until 6 months post-partum. During pregnancy, prolactin (PRL), oestrogens (total oestradiol, unconjugated oestrone, unconjugated oestriol), sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-S), progesterone and placental lactogen, and during post-partum PRL, oestrogens and SHBG, were measured. Free oestradiol in pregnancy and post-partum was calculated. RESULTS: Ten women experienced long (>6 months) and seven experienced short (<6 months) lactational amenorrhoea. At 38 weeks gestation, the women who experienced a long lactational amenorrhoea had twice as much PRL, about half the total oestradiol, lower SHBG concentration (P < 0.05, Student's t-test, Bonferroni modification) and similar free oestradiol concentration, compared with those who experienced short lactational amenorrhoea. The difference in PRL concentration persisted in post-partum postsuckling samples. CONCLUSION: At 38 weeks gestation, the ratio PRL/oestradiol identified all individual women according to the subsequent duration of their lactational amenorrhoea, suggesting that duration of lactational amenorrhoea is conditioned during pregnancy.

Key words: duration of amenorrhoea/lactational amenorrhoea/oestradiol/prolactin

6 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. E-mail: mseron{at}genes.bio.puc.cl


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