The role of prostaglandins in physiological events and pathological disorders related to human reproduction has been most actively investigated in the past decade. Their clinical use for fertility regulation, extensively evaluated, represents the most common clinical indication for the administration of these remarkable compounds. Thus, it is most appropriate to update the available information related to the use of prostaglandins in the regulation of human fertility to provide a background document for the benefit of clinicians and scientists. Invited experts of international reputation from...

It is clear today that several prostaglandins play an important role in the regulation of many of the physiological events of the reproductive organs in the human. Both naturally occurring prostaglandins and their analogues are used routinely in many countries to ripen the cervix and induce labour at term as well as to dilate the cervix and to terminate pregnancy. Prostaglandin biosynthesis inhibitors are widely used in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhoea. The editors have aimed at an accurate, thorough, yet easily under- standable review of the status in 1986 of medical knowledge...