Alteration of Urinary Excretion of Androgens by Estrogenic Therapy1,2

SOME MEMBERS of our group (i) have reported previously that urinary titers of androgens are decreased by injections of estrogens. The present communica-tion is concerned with an extension of these studies to include a larger number of patients who were treated with diverse estrogens, administered orally and by in-jection. Urine was hydrolyzed and extracted prior to quantitation by a method described by Cuyler and Baptist (2). The colorimetric method of Oesting (3) was employed for the estimation of total androgenic titers. Consecutive 24-hour specimens of urine were examined prior to initiation of therapy for intervals which ranged from 9 to 28 days in order to establish each patient's average daily excretion of androgens during the pretreatment period. During one or more series of therapy, daily 24-hour speci-mens of each patient were titrated for intervals which varied from 5 to 26 days. Only treatment which was given during the periods when hormonal titrations were being made are reported.