Ru 486 Misconceptions Myths and Morals - ressourcesfeministes

RU 486complexity of a woman’s menstrual cycle and the many finelytuned interactions between ovaries, pituitary andhypothalamus are not fully understood. Nonetheless,researchers hope to tame the female reproductive cycle withthe (anti)progesterone concept. Thus ‘normally cyclingwomen’ are recruited for their studies, and, as we are assured,after ‘informed consent’ submit their bodies to invasiveprocedures (drug ingestion, frequent blood sampling wi thindwelling intravenous catheter, interference with diet andsleep, and repeated ultrasound and biopsy, etc.). In the nameof science every possible phase of ‘the subject’s’ menstrualcycle is probed and the specialist publications proudlyillustrate the effects of RU 486 on the early follicular phase,the late follicular phase, the mid-luteal phase and the lateluteal phase (see Stuenkel et al., 1990 for an overview andfor a particularly harrowing study design). 14The literature often reveals diametrically opposedfindings. The LH surge is delayed in some studies while inothers it is normal; FSH levels are blocked, declined orare the same; hCG levels are significantly elevated (vanSanten and Haspels, 1987:436) or inhibited (Das and Catt,1987:600). Interpretations vary too, but without exceptionthe papers reveal that RU 486 is poorly understood: ‘Theway in which mifepristone impairs corpus luteum functionis unclear’ (Nieman and Loriaux, 1988:613); ‘Whether thisinhibition of gonadotropin [LH/FSH] release was a resultof action at the hypothalamic and/or pituitary level isunknown’ (Wolf et al., 1989:185); ‘The exact molecularmechanisms which mediate the negative effects ofantihormones including RU 486 are not yet clear’ (Ortmannet al., 1989:295). Some findings suggest that in addition toits antiprogesterone activities, RU 486 has a progesteronelike(agonist) effect (Collins et al., 1986; Wolf et al., 1987;Parinaud et al., 1990). Other studies found thatadministration of RU 486 without progesterone inhibitedgonadotropin secretion, and posit that RU 486 might have72