The Clinical Uses of Human Gonadotrophins

Abstract

Summary With the recent preparation of hormones from human pituitaries and human postmenopausal urine, a wider range of pituitary gonadotrophin activity has become available for clinical use. To the luteinizing and interstitial cell stimulating effects of gonadotrophin prepared from human placentas can now be added the follicle stimulating activity of pituitary and urinary gonadotrophin. The clinical applications of these hormones lie in both the diagnostic and therapeutic fields. Their administration as gonadal stimulants followed by measurement of gonadal response allows an assessment of function and the determination of the level of gonadal failure. The range of biological gonadotrophic activity of these hormones allows their use as effective replacement therapy in gonadotrophin deficiency states in both sexes and for the infertile female, even in the absence of obvious hypogonadotrophinism.