Urinary Excretion of 17-Ketosteroids in Ovarian Failure II. In Menometrorrhagia1

PATIENTS WHO EXPERIENCE too frequent or excessive uterine bleeding of functional origin may have diverse grades of ovarian failure. The severity of their ovarian disturbances can be gauged roughly by studies of endometrial biopsies taken at the onset of episodes of bleeding. Data from these studies as well as from a mass of clinical observations support the point of view that few of these patients exhibit any objective evidences of basic estrogenic deficiency, although intercurrent episodes of relative estrogenic deficiency obviously account for their menometrorrhagia (1). As a rule, these individuals are well feminized, lack the endocrinopathic signs of glandular diseases and are not possessed of hypoplastic sexual organs. Their ovarian disturbance concerns progesterone rather than the estrogens, being characterised by minimal or no corpus luteum activity. The proper selection of a group of patients with functional menometrorrhagia, characterised endocrinologically by deficiencies in corpus luteum function and not by any gross disturbances in estrogenie levels, permits study of the influence of simple corpus luteum failure of the ovaries upon the urinary excretion of 17-ketosteroids, i.e., androgenic function of the adrenals. The present study has this purpose in mind. The next two studies will evaluate the effects of estrogenic ovarian failure upon the urinary excretion of 17-ketosteroids.