Syndrome Accompanying Deficiency or Absence of the Ovarian Follicular Hormone*

In an article published in 1931, the author (1) described the symptoms presented by 136 castrated and menopausal women. This work includes additional cases, plus a new group of 48 women having involntional melancholia, totaling 197 patients. Ovarian hypo function may be due to pathological conditions such as cystic degeneration or inflammatory processes in or adjacent to the ovaries—salpingitis, appendicitis, etc.—which may cause degeneration in the glands. It may be secondary to constitutional disease processes, as some anemias, tuberculosis, malignancies other than pelvic, etc. Vitamin deficiency in the diet may cause it. It may be primary as in some cases of cunuehoidism with late development of the secondary sexual characteristics in which the ovaries may never attain full development and function. It may be secondary to anterior pituitary deficiency as in some types of infantalism, so-called bilobar-pituitary insufficiency, preadult or postadult. It may occur after partial castration where one ovary has been removed or only a small part of one ovary remains. It will be complete Where both ovaries are removed unless there be accessory ovarian tissue. It always occurs at The Climacteric.