THE FLUORIMETRIC DETERMINATION OF PROGESTERONE IN HUMAN PLASMA DURING PREGNANCY AND THE MENSTRUAL CYCLE
SUMMARY The fluorescence reaction for progesterone described by Touchstone & Murawec (1960) has been used to determine the concentration of progesterone in nineteen samples of peripheral blood from pregnant women, and in seventeen samples of peripheral blood from women during the course of the menstrual cycle. There was good agreement between the ultraviolet and fluorescent estimates of progesterone in all the samples from pregnant women. The concentrations found during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle were in general lower than those found during the luteal phase. In one woman who was sampled repeatedly during the course of a menstrual cycle, there was a well defined rise in the level of progesterone in the blood after the expected date of ovulation.