Journal article
'Luteal Analgesia’: Progesterone decreases pain unpleasantness by influencing emotion regulation networks
- Abstract:
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Background
Pregnancy-induced analgesia is known to occur in association with the very high levels of estradiol and progesterone circulating during pregnancy. In women with natural ovulatory menstrual cycles, more modest rises in these hormones occur on a monthly basis. We therefore hypothesised that the high estradiol high progesterone state indicative of ovulation would be associated with a reduction in the pain experience.
Methods
We used fMRI and a noxious thermal stimulus to explore the relationship between sex steroid hormones and the pain experience. Specifically, we assessed the relationship with stimulus-related activity in key regions of networks involved in emotion regulation, and functional connectivity between these regions.
Results
We demonstrate that physiologically high progesterone levels are associated with a reduction in the affective component of the pain experience and a dissociation between pain intensity and unpleasantness. This dissociation is related to decreased functional connectivity between the inferior frontal gyrus and amygdala. Moreover, we have shown that in the pre-ovulatory state, the traditionally “male” sex hormone, testosterone, is the strongest hormonal regulator of pain-related activity and connectivity within the emotional regulation network. However, following ovulation the traditionally “female” sex hormones, estradiol and progesterone, appear to dominate.
Conclusions
We propose that a phenomenon of ‘luteal analgesia’ exists with potential reproductive advantages.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, pdf, 2.4MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.3389/fendo.2018.00413
Authors
- Publisher:
- Frontiers Media
- Journal:
- Frontiers in Endocrinology More from this journal
- Volume:
- 9
- Pages:
- 413
- Publication date:
- 2018-07-23
- Acceptance date:
- 2018-07-02
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1664-2392
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:860138
- UUID:
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uuid:71f09b2c-54b1-4a47-b515-475a2c484d9a
- Local pid:
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pubs:860138
- Deposit date:
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2018-07-02
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Vincent et al
- Copyright date:
- 2018
- Notes:
- Copyright © 2018 Vincent, Stagg, Warnaby, Moore, Kennedy and Tracey. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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