Preliminary studies of LHRH analogue administration in women with acute intermittent porphyria suggest that these agents provide a safe and useful means of hormonal manipulation in this endocrine-related disease. Because a variety of endogenous and exogenous factors can contribute to clinical expression of this disease, it can be expected that this form of treatment will be more useful in some patients with acute intermittent porphyria than in others. Further clinical trials are needed with special attention to the possibility that more than one factor may play an additive role in inciting attacks of this disease in individual patients.