Effect of Androgen Administration upon Pregnandiol Excretion in Cyclical Women

Abstract

Summary and Conclusions

Eight women with regular menstrual periods and normal cyclic estrogen and progesterone production, as evidenced by the finding of typical secretory endometria premenstrually, were treated with androgens (methyl testosterone by mouth, testosterone propionate by injection, and testosterone and testosterone propionate by implantation) in order to determine the effect of the androgens upon excretion of SPG. The results indicate that doses of androgens which have been found, in previous studies, to be suppressive (i. e., to cause suppression of pituitary gonadotropic hormone excretion; inhibition of ovulation and menstruation), when administered early in the cycle, result in failure of SPG to appear in the urine during the current cycle and lead to suppression of the next expected menstrual period. In one patient (Case No. 6), 1175 mg of testosterone propionate, administered after the 9th day of the cycle, did not appear to appreciably affect the excretion of the pregnandiol complex during the current cycle.

These results are interpreted as indicating that if sufficient androgens are administered early in the cycle, before the pituitary gonadotropin has been secreted or had time to exert its effect on the ovary, progesterone production is suppressed, resulting in absence of pregnandiol from the urine during the current cycle. That absence of SPG from the urine is due to failure of progesterone formation and not to interference with the conversion of progesterone to the pregnandiol complex is proven by the absence of corpora lutea from the ovaries in the patients with no pregnandiol excretion.