SUPPRESSIVE ACTION OF TESTOSTERONE PRO-PIONATE ON MENSTRUATION AND ITS EFFECT ON VAGINAL SMEARS1

IN A PREVIOUS article (i) we reported the inhibitory effects of male sex hormone on human menstruation. It was shown that the administration of 775 mg. of testosterone propionate, oreton,2 over a period of 31 days produced a temporary suppression of the menstrual cycle in a young woman. The treatment was followed by a series of changes in the vaginal secretion culminating in a smear picture comparable to that observed in the meno-pause (2). Further unpublished studies have shown these smear changes to be characteristic. Since this hormone gives promise of being useful in dealing with human menstrual disturbances, and the information afforded by vaginal smears is so specific and readily obtained, a more detailed description of the smear changes occurring during and after treatment with this hormone will be given. This method of regulating hormonal therapy should prove as useful when the male sex hormone is given as it has been in guiding