[Therapy of the surgical menopause syndrome with depot medroxyprogesterone acetate and its objective evaluation testing the reaction of the anterior pituitary gland to stimulation with gonadotropin-releasing hormone].

A randomized placebo-controlled double-blind study was conducted to evaluate the effect of 150 mg depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) intramuscularly on the surgical menopause syndrome. The clinical material consisted of 30 hysterectomized and bilaterally salpingo-oophorectomized women between 38 and 54 years of age. Inclusion criteria were regular menstrual cycles until operation, the appearance of frequent vasomotor flushes (VMF) after operation, and serum FSH levels exceeding 20 mIU per ml. Since it has been shown that an increase in "LH pulses" and basal serum LH levels constitute objective parameters of VMF, determination of LH was chosen as biochemical criterion of therapeutic efficacy. DMPA was proven to reduce basal serum LH levels owing to its suppressive effect on the adenohypophysis. In order to clarify and quantify the suppressive potency of DMPA and obtain precise information on its mechanism of action, pituitary stimulation tests with gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH tests) were performed before and then at 2 and 6 weeks after initiation of therapy. Pituitary response to GnRH remained unaltered, however, at a level corresponding to the decreased basal concentrations, i.e. "LH peaks" dropped by more than 50% (p less than 0.005, Student t-test). The incidence of VMF decreased significantly and remained at a low level until 6 weeks after the administration of DMPA. Treatment with placebo resulted in a slight, but not significant decrease in VMF and did not affect the functional capacity of the adenohypophysis. A remarkable correlation was observed between the reduced size of "LH peaks" and the diminished incidence of VMF. Therefore, evaluation of pituitary response to stimulation with GnRH represents a helpful objective parameter in the assessment of the efficacy of DMPA.