Progesterone and Resting Energy Expenditure

Summary

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Description

The majority of women report an increase of body weight of about 0.5 kg/year during the menopausal transition. However, the weight gain has not been attributed to menopause itself but rather to, e.g., a decrease of the basal metabolic rate due to aging, less energy expenditure and a non-adapted calo...

The majority of women report an increase of body weight of about 0.5 kg/year during the menopausal transition. However, the weight gain has not been attributed to menopause itself but rather to, e.g., a decrease of the basal metabolic rate due to aging, less energy expenditure and a non-adapted caloric intake. One of the first signs of the menopausal transition is a change in the bleeding pattern due to a disruption of the hypothalamus-pituitary-ovary-axis. The number of cycles with an insufficient luteal phase and anovulatory cycles with an insufficient or even absent luteal phase increase as the menopausal transition proceeds. Thus, in perimenopausal women progesterone endogenous exposure decreases in quantity and duration. By substituting progesterone during the luteal phase, irregular cycle and bleeding patterns can be normalized. However, besides the beneficial effects of progesterone on the course of a menstrual cycle it displays some features that may be preventive for weight gain. In this study only women in their early menopausal transition with menstrual cycle irregularities are included. By substituting progesterone during luteal phase the investigator tries to normalize their menstrual cycle pattern. The hypothesis is, that progesterone might not only normalize the menstrual cycle pattern of women in their early menopausal transition but due to its metabolic activities, progesterone may also increase the resting energy expenditure and thus may prevent weight gain during the menopausal transition. Furthermore the effect of progesterone substitution on the expression of miRNAs which are included in glucose- and lipid-metabolism such as miR-370 and miR-29 will be investigated.

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