Correlations between progesterone, oestradiol and aldosterone levels in the premenstrual syndrome

Levels of progesterone, oestradiol and aldosterone in the plasma of twenty women with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) were measured by radioimmunoassay and the results were compared with those from a control series of ten normal volunteers. All the PMS patients were apparently ovulatory but the pooled progesterone values from days --9 to --5 premenstrually were significantly lower than the control values (P less than 0.05). The oestradiol levels in the PMS patients were higher than in control subjects over the last 4 days of the cycle (P less than 0.01). There was no significance in aldosterone levels between the PMS and control groups. The relevance of these results to the aetiology of PMS is considered.