Congenital heart disease and prenatal exposure to exogenous sex hormones.

One-hundred and four infants with congenital heart disease were identified from their birth certificates and matched with normal controls. Their gestational histories were examined to see whether they had been exposed to exogenous sex hormones. Exposure was 8-5 times more common among the infants with malformations than among controls. A history of hormone exposure was more common among those patients with multiple malformations, and the exposed infants were also more likely to have died (and to have died earlier) than those who had not been exposed, which suggests that hormone exposure causes severe types of malformations. The commonest type of exposure was to hormone pregnancy tests, which was needless exposure. Only two of the mothers of malformed infants had inadvertently used oral contraceptives in the first trimester.     

Coronary heart disease in relation to age,sex, and the menopause.

Examination of the Registrar General''s mortality data suggested that women do not lose protection from coronary heart disease (CHD) after the menopause. Apparently, at around the age of 50 men begin to lose a factor that had previously put them at increased risk of developing CHD compared with women. Male sex hormones may be risk factors for CHD, and further studies are needed to clarify their role in the aetiology of CHD in men.     

The regulation of male sexual behavior by the sex hormones

The article provides a review of the clinical and experimental data, both published and the author's own observations. They demonstrate that the hormone regulation of sex behaviour takes place at the central and the peripheral levels. The major role is played by androgenes, of which testosterone is the main regulator of sex appeal (libido, courtship behaviour in animals), while the most important regulator of ejaculation, in particular, of the time of ejaculation, is the non-aromatized androgene dihydrotestosterone (DHT). There is no rigid correlation between the level of sex activity and the level of androgenes, if the latter are within the normal individual and physiological range. However, both in case of hypo- and hyperendrogeny, the observations indicate depression of sexuality, though the mechanism of the depression are different. The author established the optimal levels of androgenes, which maintain the individual elements of the sexual act. The role of estrogene in regulation of the male sex appeal is not yet clear. As a rule, use of estrogenes results in depression of the male sexuality. At the same time, combination of DHT and estradiole (in laboratory and productive animals) leads to normalisation of erection and ejaculation disorders. These result is, probably, due to the central effect of estrogene, which prolongs the DHT effect and censures its accelerated penetration into cellular neuronal structures, as well as to the peripheral effect of DHT.