Effect of intramuscular triamcinolone acetonide on the human ovulatory cycle

The effect of intramuscular triamcinolone acetonide (TCA-A) on pituitary gonadotropins and ovarian hormones was studied in a normally menstruating woman. Serum levels of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), as well estradiol 17-beta (E2) and progesterone (P), were determined daily in a normal "ovulatory" pretreatment cycle. A total of 160 mg of TCA-A was then administered in four injections over two and a half months. Daily serum levels of LH, FHS, E2, and P were again measured during a period beginning thirty days after the last injection of TCA-A. Cyclicity of all these hormones was absent after treatment. Both LH and FSH were suppressed in the first half of the post-treatment period when compared with the pretreatment ovulatory cycle. A potent corticosteroid such as TCA-A is apparently capable of producing anovulatory cycles in humans by disruption of cyclic pituitary gonadotropin secretion.