Effects of Starvation on Sex Hormones in the Male

FOR many years there has been considerable interest in the relation of sex hormones to changes in the skin, sebaceous glands, hair, libido, prostatic fluid, breasts and menstruation. An immense amount of research has been completed relative to sex hormones, but much of this work has been carried out on small animals. The question has frequently arisen: “Would the results have been the same in the human?” Thirty-eight months in Japanese Prisoner of War Camps presented excellent opportunities to observe the clinical effects of starvation on the sex hormones of the human. The observations are set forth in this paper, and are compared to some of the results of experiments which have been carried out on small animals by various investigators. During the few months on Bataan and Corregidor, the slim diet of rice and fish had been cut to half-rations, and finally to quarter-rations. Many of the front-line troops went for days without food. When the Fil-American Forces surrendered during April and May of 1942, many vitamin deficiency diseases were already well established. Then came the “Death March” from Bataan to Camp O'Donnell without food, and with only the little water that could be sneaked from the ditches alongside the road, when the Japanese guards were not watching.