The cutaneous diseases associated with
progesterone are
autoimmune progesterone dermatitis,
erythema multiforme-like
eruption, drug-induced
progesterone dermatitis and
solar urticaria.
Estrogen and
progesterone are widely used in
oral contraceptives and
hormone replacement therapies, and they are rarely known to cause a photosensitive reaction. The mechanism of
contraceptive-induced photosensitivity is uncertain.
Estrogen, rather than
progesterone, in the
combined oral contraceptive pill has been most frequently implicated in the induction of photosensitivity. A 32-year-old woman presented with an erythematous patch with an
itching sensation on the centrofacial area of a residual vitiligious lesion. She had a history of being previously treated with narrow band UVB for 1 year. Her skin lesions had mostly subsided, but some lesions continued. She underwent an in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer 3 months previously, and she then took synthetic
progesterone for 3 weeks starting at the 4th week of pregnancy. She was in good health with neither a family history of photosensitivity nor a personal history of any other
drug ingestion or topical agent such as
sunscreen in association with the beginning of her lesions. Phototesting revealed her to be markedly photosensitive in the UVB and UVA ranges. The intradermal skin reactions to
progesterone combined with irradiation with UVA or UVB were positive. We report here on an unusual case of photosensitivity that was localized in a vitiliginous lesion, and this was associated with the
intramuscular injections of synthetic
progesterone that she had received during an in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer.