Pharmacodynamics of progesterone women, this effect being the result of suppression of the mid-cycle surge in gonadotropin secretion, is 300 mg/day. However, this figure is based on limited clinical data. Conversely, treatment with a high dosage of oral progesterone of 100 mg four times per day (or 400 mg/day total) in men for 10 days that resulted in approximately mid-luteal phase levels of progesterone (7.9–9.4 ng/mL; measured by ) did not cause any change in testosterone levels, suggesting that progesterone has little or no antigonadotropic effect in males at typical clinical dosages. In addition, a study found that administration of 1,000 mg/day oral
Menstrual cycle maturity is called a tertiary or Graafian follicle, and it contains the ovum. Ovulation is the second phase of the ovarian cycle in which a mature egg is released from the ovarian follicles into the oviduct. During the follicular phase, estradiol suppresses release of luteinizing hormone (LH) from the anterior pituitary gland. When the egg has nearly matured, levels of estradiol reach a threshold above which this effect is reversed and estrogen stimulates the production of a large amount of LH. This process, known as the LH surge, starts around day 12 of the average cycle and may last 48