The pharmacology and the potential applications of GnRH antagonists.

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonists are potent analogs of native GnRH. As biochemical probes, these recently developed compounds have allowed for profound insights into the physiology of the pituitary-ovarian and pituitary-testicular axes; as therapeutic alternatives, the GnRH antagonists hold great promise for various clinical applications, including contraception, ovulation induction, precocious puberty, and gonadal steroid-dependent neoplasia. Indeed, because of intrinsic mechanistic differences, the antagonists hold certain practical advantages over the GnRH agonists.