Endocrine Changes Before and After the Menarche: I.Urinary Excretion of Estrogen, FSH and LH, and Serum Levels of Progesterone, FSH and LH

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Abstract
Serum and urine samples from 148 healthy female children and adults were studied, ranging from girls with a bone age of 8 years to adulthood. All samples from menstruating girls were obtained between the 7th and 10th days of the menstrual cycle. The blood sample was taken on the same day as the collection of 24-hour urine sample was completed. The purpose of the study was to investigate the endocrine processes with as many parameters as possible, before and after the menarche. In assessing the results account was taken of the bone age, the gynecological age, and Tanner's puberty classification into 5 groups. Our results show that a girl's sexual and endocrine development had begun before she reached a bone age of 8 years. In the present series the FSH level at the age of 8 equalled a low adult follicular phase level, 1.12 ng/ml, and by the menarche it had increased to 1.84 ng/ml. In the lowest age group of the present series, 8 years, the mean LH level was 0.70 ng/ml, and increased until at the menarche it was 1.19 ng/ml. The initial value for total urinary estrogens at the age of 8 was 4.63 μg/24 h and increased until at the menarche it was 10.20 μg/24 h. From this level the estrogen excretion continued to increase for another 3 years, until at the age of about 16 years it reached an adult level of about 17 μg/24 h. According to this study the menarche seems to be followed by a “steady phase” of some 18–24 months in hormone excretion, with practically all hormone values remaining constant. Hormone excretion in girls around the age of puberty seems to show a slow, almost linear increase, without any remarkable peaks before the menarche, and the endocrine maturation seems to continue up till 5 years after the menarche.

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