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  • Research use only — not for human or veterinary use
  • 67 compound profiles, every source cited
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Research profile · Hormone

HMG

Also known as Human menopausal gonadotropin, Menotrophin

Clinical — evidence level 4 of 4: Established clinical evidencePrescription only — UK regulatory status: Prescription-only medicine (UK)

Overview

A purified preparation of FSH and LH activity from human urine. A prescription-only medicine in the UK.

Category
Hormone
Highest evidence level identified
Established clinical evidence
Last scientifically reviewed
22 August 2026
Last regulatory review
22 August 2026

Mechanism under investigation

Human menopausal gonadotropin — menotrophin — is a purified extract of the urine of postmenopausal women, standardised to deliver defined follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinising hormone bioactivity in a fixed ratio; in the licensed UK product, 75 IU of each per vial, with a substantial part of the LH-like activity contributed by hCG naturally present in the extract. FSH activity recruits and matures ovarian follicles by driving granulosa-cell proliferation and aromatase activity; the LH component supports theca-cell androgen supply and follicular steroidogenesis. In men it is used to stimulate spermatogenesis in gonadotrophin deficiency.

Research areas

  • Reproductive endocrinology

These are fields in which the compound has been investigated. Listing a field is not a statement that anything was demonstrated within it.

Current evidence

In-vitro evidence

Cells, tissues or biochemical systems outside a living organism.

The constituent hormones are among the best-characterised ligand–receptor systems in endocrinology; preparation-level work concerns standardisation, purity profiling and the contribution of hCG to measured LH activity.

Animal evidence

Studies in living non-human animals.

Classical gonadotrophin pharmacology across species underpins the whole field; menotrophin-specific animal work is largely historical, from the era in which urinary gonadotrophins were first standardised.

Human observational evidence

Studies observing people without assigning an intervention.

Decades of registry and cohort data across assisted reproduction, where menotrophin has been in continuous clinical use since the 1960s.

Clinical-trial evidence

Studies assigning an intervention to human participants.

Extensive. The Cochrane comparison of recombinant FSH against urinary gonadotrophins across 42 trials and nearly ten thousand couples found no clinically meaningful difference in live-birth rate — the head-to-head question that dominated the specialty for two decades, answered in favour of neither.

Study limitations

  • Evidence quality is high only within monitored fertility treatment; the preparation has no evidence base outside it.
  • As a biological extract, batch standardisation is by bioassay, and the historical literature spans preparations of very different purity.
  • Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome and multiple pregnancy are recognised risks of gonadotrophin stimulation, managed by monitoring that is part of the licensed use.
  • Trials comparing stimulation protocols measure surrogate outcomes as often as live birth, which complicates synthesis.

UK regulatory context

Prescription-only medicine (UK)

A medicine that may lawfully be supplied in the UK only against a prescription from an appropriate practitioner.

Source: MENOPUR 75 IU powder and solvent for solution for injection — Summary of Product Characteristics (opens medicines.org.uk in a new tab) (electronic Medicines Compendium)

Regulatory classification is jurisdiction-specific. A compound authorised elsewhere is not thereby authorised in the UK, and a supplier’s description of a substance does not determine how it is classified in law. See safety and regulation for the framework and the authoritative sources.

Safety and interpretation

Menotrophin is a UK prescription-only medicine used within specialist fertility practice, where dosing is individualised and response is followed with ultrasound and estradiol monitoring precisely because the therapeutic window matters: the recognised serious risk, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, is dose- and response-dependent. In men its use sits within specialist endocrinology. It is also a human-derived biological product, which is its own reason provenance and pharmaceutical-grade manufacture are not optional. None of its safety record transfers to research-grade material.

References