Measurement of glucuronometabolites of 17 beta-estradiol and progesterone in diluted overnight urine. An approach to the study of luteal insufficiency

The determination of the concentrations of estrone-3-glucuronide, pregnanediol-3-glucuronide and luteinizing hormone has been performed in early morning urine samples of 14 normal menstruating women using a timed and measured volume urine collection procedure. In order to investigate the variability of the urinary hormonal concentrations due to day-to-day differences in diuresis, the absolute hormonal concentrations have been corrected either for the urinary creatinine excretion or for the volume of urine voided during the night. The results demonstrate that both correction factors are able to reduce substantially the coefficient of variation values in comparison to the absolute hormonal concentrations. The urinary test of ovarian function has been performed in 11 infertile women affected by luteal insufficiency using the same procedure, and the hormonal profiles showed some alterations in both estrone-3-glucuronide and pregnanediol-3-glucuronide concentrations in comparison to the hormonal profiles of the normal subjects. Such alterations were significant in the single subject when integrated values of the hormonal data in defined time intervals were investigated.