Studies on the effects of different preparations of human gonadotrophins on the excretion of steroids by women

This research work has been a biochemical investigation of the effects of different preparations of human urinary and pituitary gonadotrophins on the excretion of steroids by women with different endocrinological conditions. The effects of different dosages of hormones were studied in a group of women with secondary amenorrhoea in statistically designed experiments and the results were analysed by comparison to the excretion of steroids during the normal menstrual cycle. Using the information gained from these experiments these women have become pregnant, and one pregnancy occurred during an experiment. One woman gave birth to dissimilar twins, two to single children and another aborted. The excretion of hormones during pregnancy was followed and compared to the excretion patterns found in normal pregnancy. The excretion of oestriol and pregnanediol following treatment with gonadotrophins and other trophic hormones was studied in a woman with Simmonds' disease. The hormones controlling the excretion of steroids in the urine of women with the Stein-Leventhal Syndrome and the occurrence of steroids in the follicular fluid from the patients was investigated. During this work a short rapid method for the estimation of oestriol in urine was developed. The accuracy, precision, sensitivity and specificity of the method was discussed