Medical uses
Norethisterone is used as a hormonal contraceptive in combination with an estrogen – usually ethinylestradiol (EE) – in combined oral contraceptive pills and alone in progestogen-only pills. Another medical use of norethisterone is to alleviate endometriosis related pain. In fact, 50% of patients who received medical or surgical treatment for endometriosis-related pelvic pain have benefited from progestin therapy. This could be due to the fact that norethisterone induces endometrial proliferation during secretory phase, which has been shown to alleviate endometrial pain complaints. Another way in which norethisterone may be acting to reduce endometrial pain is via inhibition of ovulation. Endometriosis pain and discomfort is worse during ovulation. Contraindications
High-dose (10 mg/day) norethisterone has been associated with hepatic veno-occlusive disease, and because of this adverse effect, norethisterone should not be given to patients undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, as it has been associated with substantially lower one-year survival post-transplantation. : 217

Side effects
At contraceptive and hormone replacement dosages (0.35 to 1 mg/day), norethisterone has essentially progestogenic side effects only. In most clinical studies of norethisterone for contraception or menopausal hormone therapy, the drug has been combined with an estrogen, and for this reason, it is difficult to determine which of the side effects were caused by norethisterone and which of them were caused by estrogen in such research. However, NETE, an intramuscularly administered prodrug of norethisterone which is used as a long-acting contraceptive, is used without an estrogen, and hence can be employed as a surrogate for norethisterone in terms of understanding its effects and tolerability.
Synthesis 1
Estradiol 3-methyl ether (1, EME) is partially reduced to the 1,5-diene (2) as also occurs for the first step in the synthesis of nandrolone. Oppenauer oxidation then transforms the C17β hydroxyl group into a ketone functionality (3). This is then reacted with metal acetylide into the corresponding C17α ethynyl compound (4). Hydrolysis of the enol ether under mild conditions leads directly to (5), which appears to be noretynodrel (although Lednicer states that it is "etynodrel" in his book (which may be a synonym etynodiol); etynodrel is with a chlorine atom attached), an orally active progestin. This is the progestogen component of the first oral contraceptive to be offered for sale (i.e., Enovid). Treatment of the ethynyl enol ether with strong acid leads to norethisterone (6).In practice, these and all other combined oral contraceptives are mixtures of 1 to 2% EE or mestranol and an oral progestin. It has been speculated that the discovery of the necessity of estrogen in addition to progestin for contraceptive efficacy is due to the presence of a small amount of unreduced EME (1) in early batches of 2. This when subjected to oxidation and ethynylation, would of course lead to mestranol (3). In any event, the need for the presence of estrogen in the mixture is now well established experimentally.