Comparitive study on the effects of sexual hormones on the structures of female uterus and bladders in rat

Objective Sexual hormones play important roles in the female lower urinary tract.This study is to compare effects of the hormones on female uterus and bladders in rat.Methods Fifty mature female SD rats(four months old) were studied four weeks after sham surgery(sham group) or bilateral ovariectomy.The ovariectomized rats were assigned to the other four groups: OVX group,OVX+E group,OVX+P and OVX+T group,which were treated with no medication,estradiol benzoate(1mg/kg,im),progesterone(1mg/kg,im),testosterone propionate(3mg/kg,im) one time each two days,respectively.After four weeks,all the rats were killed and the morphologic changes of the uterus and bladder walls were examined.Results After bilateral ovariectomy,the thickness of myometrium and(endometrium) of the uterus and bladder decreased significantly when compared with those of the sham-operation group.Estrogen and testosterone treatments resulted in significant increase of the weight and the thickness of the bladder,but the progesterone treatment had no significant effect on the bladder structures.Conclusion the circulating estrogen and testosterone have hypertrophic effect on the uterus as well as the bladder in female rats.