Golden Ovaries

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Abstract
Summary: This report concerns 6 women who presented with an excessive intake of carotene‐containing foodstuffs and menstrual disturbance. Four of these were well nourished with respect to protein intake, while the other 2 were undernourished (anorexia nervosa type syndrome).Four of the patients were in an older age group (range 35‐58) with excessive or irregular vaginal bleeding; 2 of the patients were younger (22, 23) and presented with oligo‐amenorrhoea. The ovaries in all patients were golden yellow in colour and possessed a characteristic histological appearance. Fat stains revealed abundant, highly‐dispersed, lipid granules occurring throughout the ovarian cortex, not restricted to areas around the corpora lutea; special stains for carotenoid pigments were strongly positive, the latter giving the ovary its uniformly yellow colour, which is usually only seen in relation to the corpus luteum.It is proposed that those women with a normal protein and a high carotene intake suffered from a hypervitaminosis A syndrome leading to a bleeding tendency. Those women with a sub‐normal protein intake may have had a suboptimal conversion of carotene to vitamin A and no bleeding tendency.

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