The paper presents current views on the role of sex steroids and their receptors in ovarian cycle regulation in normal and in some pathological conditions.
Steroid hormones (estrogen, progesterone, androgens) synthesized in the ovary, additionally to their influences on the endocrine target organs of the reproductive system, are powerful auto-, para- and intracrine regulators of the follicles growth and atresia, ovulation and corpus luteum formation and regression. The investigation of intraovarian steroid receptor expression in various pathological conditions related to female ovarian cycle disturbances contribute to anovulatory infertility pathogenesis understanding, functional ovarian cysts formation, ovarian apoplexy, and will solve the problem pathogenetically substantiated treatment and prevention of this common gynecological pathology.