Correlation of ovarian follicle size and the urinary excretion of oestrone glucuronide, luteinizing hormone and pregnanediol glucuronide in spontaneous cycles

Abstract

Ovarian follicular development was investigated in 17 apparently normal women in whom ovulation was dated using real-time ultrasonography. Ultrasonic determination of follicular growth was performed on a daily basis with a real-time sector scanner, and correlated with daily concentrations of oestrone-3-glucuronide (EI-3-G), luteinizing hormone (LH) and the ratio of EI-3-G to pregnanediol-3α-glucuronide (Pd-3α-G) in early morning urine. The main results from ultrasonography showed that all patients except one developed follicle greater than 1 .8 cm, with a mean growth rate of 0.18 cm/day. There was a statistically significant correlation between the mean follicular diameter and the mean concentrations of urinary EI-3-G (r = 0.95, P < 0.001) and ratio of EI-3- G to Pd-3α-G (r = 0.97, P < 0.001) during the 8 days prior to ovulation.