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Progesterone Diuresis

Meaning

Progesterone diuresis is the physiological process where the hormone progesterone exerts a mild diuretic effect, leading to an increase in the rate of urine excretion and a net loss of sodium and water from the body. This effect is a consequence of progesterone’s structural similarity to mineralocorticoids, allowing it to act as a competitive antagonist to aldosterone at its receptor sites in the renal tubules. Clinically, this mechanism is responsible for some of the fluid balance changes observed during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle and is leveraged therapeutically in certain hormone regimens.