Dexamethasone for Excessive Menstruation

NCT01769820 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: PHASE2 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 123

Last updated 2018-10-25

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

This study builds on previous research which has provided compelling evidence that deficient activity of glucocorticoids in the endometrium is a cause of increased menstrual bleeding. This study aims to demonstrate that a glucocorticoid (dexamethasone), already in common use for other conditions, (eg to treat medical conditions such as asthma and rheumatoid arthritis in early pregnancy), will reverse the endometrial glucocorticoid deficiency and as a result reduce menstrual blood loss.

The study is in two stages, a 12 month workup stage and a 3 year, response adaptive, dose-finding randomised controlled trial. The first stage involves two workup clinical studies to gather preliminary safety and efficacy data from first-in-Heavy Menstrual Bleeding use of oral dexamethasone. They will also provide methodological data for a series of simulation studies to determine a robust adaptive trial design specification.

Workup study 1: is unblinded, six patients will be given Dexamethasone (0.75mg twice daily) for 5 days during two consecutive menstrual cycles and will have an endometrial biopsy and MRI on two occasions (in a nontreated cycle, and the second of the cycles treated with Dexamethasone). Workup study 2; is a doubleblind crossover trial of 14 women -2 treatment blocks of two cycles each, with either placebo or Dexamethasone (0.75mg twice daily), randomised to order of treatments blocks - placebo then Dexamethasone, or vice-versa.

Adaptive trial: 54 month double-blind, placebo controlled trial of 108 women to evaluate the effect of Dexamethasone across a range of doses with the aim of identifying the optimal dose to be studied in a subsequent Phase III trial.

Participants will be randomised to receive one of 6 active doses or placebo over 3 menstrual cycles.

All studies will involve asking participants to complete menstrual diaries and to carry out menstrual blood loss collections to objectively measure blood loss.

The investigators' proposed approach is novel use of synthetic glucocorticoid to "rescue" luteal phase deficiency of cortisol, and thus improve endometrial vasculature and hence vasoconstriction when menses commences, and thus reduce menstrual bleeding.

Conditions

  • Heavy Menstrual Bleeding

Interventions

DRUG

Dexamethasone

studies 1\&2:0.75mg twice daily for 5 days, starting on day LH (Luteinising Hormone)+8 of menstrual cycle; Study 3 (adaptive) 0.2,0.4,0.5,0.75,0.8,0.9mg twice daily as above

DRUG

placebo

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • NHS Lothian

    collaborator OTHER_GOV
  • University of Edinburgh

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Hilary Critchley, MBChB MD · University of Edinburgh

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
TRIPLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
60 Years
Sex
FEMALE
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2013-01-31
Primary Completion
2018-03-29
Completion
2018-04-18

Countries

  • United Kingdom

Study Locations

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Entities

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01769820 on ClinicalTrials.gov