Androgen, Gonadotrophin and Steroid Excretion in man before and after Castration and adrenalectomy

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Abstract
Endocrine changes that follow hormonal therapy, orchiectomy, and adrenalectomy were studied by means of colorimetric estimation of 17-ketosteroids and 17-hydroxy-corticoids, biologic assays of androgenic activity using the chick comb technique, and the mouse uterine weight technique for the follicle stimulating hormone excretion. Determinations were done on 24-hour urines collected on ice. Urinary andro-gens determined biologically appear to have been sharply and promptly diminished by castration and to have been still further reduced to a minimal level by subsequent adrenalectomy. On maintenance therapy with cortisone acetate the level of excretion remains as low as when replacement therapy is withdrawn. Although biologic androgens do not disappear from the urine of the castrated adrenalectomized man they are so reduced as to indicate a relationship to the clinical improve- ment sometimes noted after adrenalectomy for prostatic cancer. It was shown that the 17-ketosteroids sometimes roughly parallel the biologic androgens in their changes after these surgical procedures and may be used as a rough guide of androgenic activity in the patient.