Creatine Retention Capacity of Boys in Relation to Androgen Function12

Abstract

It is known that prepuberal boys and girls and adult women exhibit a creatinuria though the adult male does not. Also that the tolerance for exogenous creatine is much less in the former group than in the adult male. The difference in tolerance between the sexes is, apparently, not due to a difference in sex, per se, since some muscular women exhibit a marked capacity to retain exogenous creatine (1). It is believed that a poor creatine tolerance occurs until about the age of 13 years and parallels the physiological creatinuria of adolescence (2). Castrates, eunuchoids, aged humans and those exhibiting hypogonadism also show impaired creatine retention. Thus interest is focused on the relation of hormones to the metabolism of creatine. Remen (3) found a creatinuria in elderly men (70–90 years), one eunuch and one castrate. These behaved like infants and children in that they excreted most of the injected creatine. Thus he concludes the male gonad has a definite effect on creatine excretion.