The current ovarian cycle paradigm postulates that ovulation is triggered by a critically sustained elevation of estradiol. However, an in-depth look into the published data reveals considerable uncertainty about the relative roles of progesterone and estradiol in the ovulation process.This review provides compelling evidences that the role of estradiol in ovulation has been misinterpreted and that the true physiological trigger of ovulation is a luteinizing hormone-independent preovulatory progesterone surge in the circulation to approximately 0.5 ng/mL. Furthermore, the current work reconciles the ability of progesterone to trigger ovulation, with its well-established ability to block ovulation during pregnancy, or when administered in the form of a synthetic progestin in birth control formulations and with experimental data that estradiol benzoate triggers ovulation in the complete absence of progesterone.

中文翻译：

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促黄体生成素独立的孕酮升高是人类排卵促性腺激素激增的生理触发因素

当前的卵巢周期范式假设排卵是由雌二醇的持续升高触发的。然而，对已发表数据的深入研究揭示了孕酮和雌二醇在排卵过程中的相对作用的相当大的不确定性。这篇综述提供了令人信服的证据，证明雌二醇在排卵中的作用被误解了，排卵的真正生理触发因素是循环中不依赖促黄体激素的排卵前孕酮激增至约 0.5 ng/mL。此外，目前的工作协调了孕酮触发排卵的能力，以及其在怀孕期间阻止排卵的公认能力，