Testosterone and 17 beta-oestradiol secretion of the human ovary. I. normal young women, and premenopausal women with endometrial hyperplasia.
Testosterone and 17 beta-oestradiol were determined in blood obtained from the ovarian veins of 26 women, 16 of whom were young and regularly ovulating and menstruating, and 10 of whom were premenopausal with uterine bleedings and endometrial hyperplasia. The concentrations of these two hormones in the cubital veins of the premenopausal women were also determined. It was found that the concentrations of the two hormones were not significantly greater in the premenopausal women than in the control group of young normally ovulating and menstruating women in the periovulatory phase of the menstural cycle, but that the ovarian secretion rates of both hormones, particularly of testosterone, were considerably greater in the premenopausal women. In these women the concentrations of both hormones were significantly lower in the cubital veins than in the ovarian veins. The conclusion is that the augmented oestrogenic effect on the endometrium and on other target organs of premenopausal women with endometrial hyperplasia may be due not only to an increased ovarian secretion rate of estradiol, but also and more specifically to an increased ovarian secretion rate of testosterone, and to the rapid vonversion of this hormone into oestradiol in the periphery.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004714:Endometrial Hyperplasia / Q000378:metabolism*; D004958:Estradiol / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D010053:Ovary / Q000378:metabolism*; D013739:Testosterone / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*
D013739:Testosterone; D004958:Estradiol