text_1: Progesterone may be key to preventing recurrent miscarriage
text_2: This is a somewhat confusing news release that contained very few of the most important details from the study — effectiveness, safety and cost, for example — that anyone would want to know if they were interested in preventing miscarriage. The confusion arises around what is being tested: is it the progesterone, the nCyclinE molecular marker or the Endometrial Function Test (EFT) used in this experiment to identify a subset of women who would benefit from progesterone? Our reviewers were baffled and readers likely will be, too. Progesterone has been clinically used to prevent unexplained early miscarriage. Some early meta-analyses had suggested a reduction in miscarriages, but later trials showed no difference. If you are going to make a claim that progesterone prevents miscarriage, you should have more than a 116-person study to back up that claim. Preventing miscarriages could be a major public health advance and have a very profound effect on the lives of parents and families. If a cheap, safe and effective treatment could be prescribed to prevent untimely deaths of fetuses that would be welcome news. Potential mothers who have experienced the pain of miscarriage, however, should not be inadvertently led astray from headlines that promise miscarriage prevention without adequate study of the safety and effectiveness of that treatment. We’ve noted concerns with Yale’s PR communications previously, for example here and here.