THE EFFECT OF THYROXINE ON THE FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM IN PARABIOTIC RATS1

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Numerous reports in the literature have demonstrated that experimentally induced hyperthyroidism may exert definite inhibitory effects on the female reproductive system. A decrease in the number of ovarian follicles after large dosages of desiccated thyroid has been observed in rats by Da Costa and Carlson (1933) and in rabbits by Chu and You (1945). Irregularity in or total cessation of the estrous jcycle in hyperthyroid rats has been noted by Cameron and Amies (1926), Reiss and Pereny (1928), Weichert and Boyd (1933), Van Horn (1933) and Halpern and Hendryson (1935). The effectiveness of various injected gonadotrophins in stimulating the ovaries of immature rats has been markedly reduced by thyroid feeding or thyroxine injection (Fluhman 1934; Tyndale and Levin, 1937; Tolksdorf and Jenson, 1939). An increase in the gonadotrophic potency of the hyperthyroid rat pituitary gland as indicated by assays in immature animals of the same species has been demonstrated by Evans and Simpson (1930), Cohen (1935), and Membrives (1938).