Progesterone influence on prostate diseases and prospects in preventing and treating benign prostatic hyperplasia

The prevalence of prostate diseases primarily benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer (PC) has been progressively increasing with age being related to dramatic change in hormonal balance. Researchers and clinicians adhere to traditional understanding in developing BPH pathogenesis underlying no prominent achievements in the disease prevention and treatment. The ongoing search for gaining insights into the mechanisms behind development of these pathologies lies beyond assessing progesterone as one of the key hormones that plays an crucial role in the prostate gland functioning that has not been studied in this regard for many years. Until now, it is believed that progesterone is an exclusively "female hormone", despite that the first line therapy for BPH relies on using drugs lowering activity of enzyme 5α-reductase involved in testosterone-to-dihydrotestosterone transformation, wherein progesterone serves this function in male body under normal in vivo settings. In fact, such drugs are presented by chemical analogues of progesterone bearing minor changes in its molecule structure. In other words, to correct the pathophysiological aspects, it is necessary to proceed from the physiological basics. Presuming this, international research data available on the pathogenesis of BPH and PC as well as the effectiveness for various approaches to pathognomonic therapeutic approaches to prevent them have been analyzed.