ESTROGEN TREATMENT IN A FEMALE EUNUCHOID

Abstract

THE SYNDROME of eunuchoidism as an expression of primary, preadolescent deficiency of the gonads is characterized by inadequate development of the external genital organs and an almost complete lack of secondary sexual characteristics together with a peculiar skeletal build (disproportion between the trunk and the extremities). This endocrinopathy, although by no means rare in the female, is better known in and usually associated with the male sex. This may explain why milder degrees of eunuchoidism in the female are frequently not recognized and patients with this condition receive treatment, if at all, only for symptomatic reasons such as complaints of amenorrhea, hypomenorrhea or dysmenorrhea. The female eunuchoid, that is the woman whose gonads were damaged at an early period of life or failed to develop properly from their embryonal anlage, is built in the same characteristic way as the male eunuchoid. The physical characteristics include: at least average or above average height; excess of the span ...