Circulating concentrations of progestins used in contraception

This dataset is a compilation of published progestin levels in blood plasma or serum, representing the circulating concentrations of progestins commonly used in contraception. The dataset consists of tables supplementary to the manuscript "Pharmacokinetics, metabolism and serum concentrations of progestins used in contraception", submitted to the journal Pharmacology & Therapeutics. In part of this manuscript we discuss possible reasons for the wide inter-individual and inter-study variability in reported serum progestin concentrations. The data was sourced through extensive PubMed searches for serum or plasma concentrations of progestins used in various methods of administration e.g. intramuscular injection, subdermal implant or combined oral contraceptive. The columns in these tables include progestin concentrations (in nanomolar[nM]/picomolar [pM] or nanograms/milliliter [ng/ml] or picograms/milliliter [pg/ml]) for several different progestins, the concentrations of endogenous estrogen or progesterone or exogenous ethinyl estradiol, the model system used (number of women, any other drugs used in combination, other demographics), the method of quantification used (typically radioimmunoassay [RIA] or liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry [LC-MS]) and the citation for the original reference (listed at the end of each table). Abbreviations are explained at the end of each table. Molecular weights used for concentration conversions between nM-ng/ml or pM-pg/ml are indicated at the end of each table. While organic solvent extraction is always used for LC-MS methods, it is sometimes used prior to RIA: where this information was available, the organic solvent used is reported. Some data may be omitted due to restricted access to the original publication. This is a non-exhaustive, manually compiled list from publications since the 1960s and as such, some mistakes and/or omissions may have unintentionally occurred.