Intranasal LHRH agonist treatment for inhibition of ovulation in women: clinical aspects.

Daily intranasal administration of the potent stimulatory LHRH analogue D-Ser(TBU)6-EA10-LHRH was given to fifty healthy women for 3 months. Twenty-six women received 400 micrograms LHRH agonist/day and twenty-four women received 600 microgram/day. Inhibition of ovulation occurred during 147 of the 150 treatment months. The three presumptively ovulatory cycles were probably the result of initial technical problems with the nasal spray. No pregnancies occurred. Reactivation of corpus luteum with slightly raised progesterone levels in serum at initiation of treatment was observed in six women. During 20 month treatment the serum progesterone levels were slightly raised, indicating luteinization of follicles or defect luteal phases. Most of the women had menstrual-like bleeding during treatment. Seventeen volunteers had regular bleeding and twenty-three women had oligomenorrhoea. No dysfunctional uterine bleeding occurred, but three women reported spotting. The remaining ten women had amenorrhoea during treatment without any symptoms of oestrogen deficiency. After discontinuation of treatment the women regained ovulatory menstrual cycles after 31 days on average. The treatment was very well accepted by all the women.