Effect of intramuscular triamcinolone acetonide on the human ovulatory cycle

The effect of triamcinolone acetonide (TCA-A) im 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 as estradiol-17beta (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 4 injections over 2 months. Daily serum levels of LH, FSH, E2, and P were again measured during a period beginning 30 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 1st half of the posttreatment 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.