THE ACTION OF TESTOSTERONE PROPIONATE ON EXPERIMENTAL MENSTRUATION IN THE MONKEY1

Abstract

CLINICAL OBSERVATIONS have shown that when masculinizing changes begin in girls, as in virilism, menstruation becomes irregular, scanty or stops for long periods. This has led to investigations of the possible rOle of androgens in the menstrual cycle. It is possible experimentally to inhibit the rhythmic occurrence of menstruation by administration of androgen in the intact monkey (1, 2) and in women (3, 4). The uterine bleeding which follows the cessation of adequate estrogenic stimulation in monkeys (5) has likewise been inhibited by the subsequent administration of androgen (2). Relatively high doses have been used to accomplish this androgenic inhibition. Testosterone has several biological reactions fairly similar to those of progesterone. One of these is the inhibition of experimental menstrual bleeding in spayed monkeys subject to estrogen′deprivation (6). In spite of the observation that these two hormones exert a different histological reaction on the endometrium (7), the actual mechanism whereby...