Treatment of Menometrorrhagia With an Anti‐oestrogen

Abstract

SUMMARY Six women with menometrorrhagia, two with anovular cycles and four with ovular cycles, have been studied, before, during and after treatment with tamoxifen, a competitive inhibitor of the binding of oestrogen to the endometrium. During treatment the urinary pregnanediol excretion of the women with anovular cycles rose and a modified secretory transformation of the endometrium occurred. Ovulation occurred during treatment in all the patients suffering from ovulatory menorrhagia. Most patients noted a diminution in the amount and duration of bleeding and there was a tendency for the previously irregular bleeding to occur at regular intervals during treatment.

The development of tamoxifen for breast cancer therapy: A tribute to the late Arthur L. Walpole

“…Tamoxifen was initially used in premenopausal women to treat menometrorrhagia [111] and to induce ovulation in infertile women [10,11]. Subsequent evaluation of the endocrine effects of tamoxifen by Groom and Griffiths [112] revealed an increase in ovarian estrogen production.…”