The Crucial Difference Between Progesterone and Progestins

The progestins in hormonal birth control are not progesterone.

Yet, so many journalists and even doctors use the word progesterone when they really mean a progestin drug such as drospirenone, levonorgestrel, or medroxyprogesterone. They are not the same thing.

Progesterone is not a generic term like estrogen. Instead, progesterone refers only to the hormone made by the corpus luteum or taken as oral micronized progesterone.

The progestins of hormonal birth control and old styles of hormone repl...