Gestone injections contain the natural female hormone progesterone as its active ingredient. Gestone is used in the treatment of menstrual disorders such as amenorrhea (lack of menstrual flow), menorrhagia (heavy menstrual bleeding), irregular periods, or continuous, heavy menstrual bleeding. Gestone may also be prescribed for treatment of endometriosis.
How Gestone Works
For pregnancy Gestone is used for maintaining early pregnancy in women who had three or miscarriages due to an inadequate luteal phase. In some of the treatment protocols progesterone is not produced by the ovary in adequate amounts, or its effective on the lining of the uterus is inadequate. This problem is called luteal deficiency, and it is more common in older women and in women with abnormal ovulation. As a synthetic hormone for progesterone, Gestone can help a fertilized egg implant into the womb lining during assisted reproduction with in vitro fertilization or gamete intra-fallopian transfer (GIFT).
How to Use Gestone
There are many different forms of progesterone: daily oral progesterone; a vaginal pessaries e.g. cyclogest; vaginal tablets; vaginal gel; and an intramuscular injection. Gestone comes in the form of an intramuscular injection, which produces the highest blood levels.
Rather than the thigh or deltoid, Gestone should be injected deep into the buttock using a 1.5 inch (3.8cm) needle. The buttock is an ideal site because it has ample fat cells where a depot of progesterone can be formed for slow release.
Gestone should be taken twice weekly or more frequent injections of 25-100mg from approximately day 15, or until 8 – 16 weeks of the pregnancy when secretion of progesterone from the placenta should be established. Maximum dosages can be prescribed daily and increase to 200mg at the discretion of the physician. A daily dosage may be advised because of the body’s rapid metabolism of progesterone and the need to maintain adequate blood levels.
One should stop using this medication and inform your healthcare professional if any of these symptoms are experienced while receiving injections: visual disturbances (such as blurred vision, partial vision, sudden short-sightedness or complete loss of vision), swelling of the eyes, or migraine or severe headaches.
As the indications for Gestone are restricted to women of child-bearing age, dosage recommendations for children and the elderly are not appropriate.
References
Gestone (progesterone). (2014). Retrieved from www.netdoctor.co.uk: http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/womens-health/medicines/gestone.html
Gestone 100mg/2ml. (2007, August 2). Retrieved from www.medicines.org.uk: http://www.medicines.org.uk/emcmobile/medicine/21951/spc
