---
title: Is progesterone an effective treatment for premenstrual syndrome?
description: The research could not prove whether progesterone works for PMS or not. Only two studies met the review criteria and they were too different to combine.
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/progesterone-for-premenstrual-syndrome-2012/
---

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- Is progesterone an effective treatment for premenstrual syndrome?

Systematic review, 2012

# Is progesterone an effective treatment for premenstrual syndrome?

The research could not prove whether progesterone works for PMS or not. Only two studies met the review criteria and they were too different to combine.

 Strong study design

280 women aged 18 to 45 years with PMS (from two included studies)

## What they did

The researchers searched for and reviewed randomized controlled trials comparing progesterone to placebo in women with PMS. Out of 17 studies found, only 2 met their strict inclusion criteria.

## What they found

The two studies included 280 women total, but only 115 had results available for analysis. The studies used different amounts of progesterone, gave it in different ways, and had different participants. One study showed that women benefited more from progesterone than placebo when certain women were excluded from the analysis. The smaller study found no difference between different forms of progesterone and placebo. Both studies had design flaws.

## What it means for you

We cannot say whether progesterone works for PMS. Only two small studies were available, and they were very different from each other. Both studies also had problems in how they were designed.

280

Total participants across both studies

115

Women with analyzable results

2

Studies that met inclusion criteria

## About the study

Original title Progesterone for premenstrual syndrome Authors Ford O, Lethaby A, Roberts H et al. Journal The Cochrane database of systematic reviews Year 2012 Study design Systematic review What was tested Progesterone (oral or vaginal forms) versus placebo Open access Yes Read the paper [doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd003415.pub4](https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd003415.pub4)

## Topics

[Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)

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