Jerome A. Grunt

Neonatal genital reconstruction.

It is evident from studies of boys who suffered a surgical catastrophe at a young age and were then assigned a female sex role that cultural and environmental influence are a potent determinant of a childs gender identity. It is imperative that parents have their childs sex assignment firmly fixed in their minds as early as possible. Early surgical correction of a child with ambiguous genitalia to conform to the sex of assignment will serve greatly to reinforce appropriate behavior in the parent. Such surgical intervention for diagnostic and reconstructive purposes is both desirable and safe in the first weeks of life.

Exogenous Androgen and Non-Directed Hyperexcitability in Castrated Male Guinea Pig.∗

Summary A non-directed hyperexcitability, dependent on the level of androgen, has been described in the male guinea pig. An increase in the frequency of its occurrence took place after castration; and with the daily administration of testosterone propionate in amounts of 25 γ or more per 100 g body weight there was an immediate return to the level of the intact control. Injection of 12.5 γ of the hormone did not eliminate the increase which followed castration. The similarity of these results to other data bearing on the effect of testosterone on sexual behavior is noted.

Mediators of Psychological Adjustment in Children and Adolescents with Short Stature

Short stature is defined as growth below the fifth percentile for chronological age, or as height greater than 2 standard deviations (SDS) below the mean height for chronological age (1,2). Approximately 5 percent of all children (1.27 million) have significant short stature (SS) in the United States (2,3). Many posttreatment studies of children and adults treated for growth hormone deficiency (GHD) as children have shown these individuals to have poorer psychological and social adjustment than their normally developing peers (4-7). Higher unemployment rates (5), lower marriage rates (5), and increased incidents of psychiatric disorders and social phobia are reliably reported (7,8).

The influence of oral contraceptives on hormonal and metabolic homeostasis in young adolescents

In order to evaluate the effects of oral contraceptives on metabolic and endocrine function in teenagers, Norinyl 1/50 was begun in 46 12-17-year-old girls after a 16-hour-fasting blood sample was obtained for glucose, insulin, glucagon, growth hormone, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, thyroid-stimulating hormone, prolactin, gluconeogenic substrates, total lipids, and cholesterol. Sampling was repeated at 6 and 12 months of therapy. Of the 46 patients enrolled in the study, 23 returned for follow-up after 6 months, and 13 completed the study. Blood sampling after 6 and 12 months of therapy demonstrated no significant changes (p greater than 0.05). Our results suggest that there were no changes in the metabolic or endocrine functions studied at 6 and 12 months on a medium-dose contraceptive agent.

Effects of age, castration and/or steroids upon hematocrit in male rats.

Summary and Conclusions 1. Some of our results confirm previous findings: hematocrits of rats castrated as adults are lower than those of intact animals; testosterone propionate returned hematocrits to normal after castration, but did not cause elevation in hematocrits of intact or castrated animals above normal. Estradiol benzoate did not significantly lower hematocrits of intact and castrate rats. 2. Other findings are new: hematocrits of neonatally castrated adult rats were not significantly different from those of intact adults of the same age, and thus differed from those of animals castrated as adults and examined 14 days later. Aqueous testosterone returned the hematocrits of castrates to normal. There was a trend in both intact and castrates for sesame oil to increase the hematocrit. Because sesame oil is widely used as a supposedly neutral vehicle for hormones, the possibility that it has an effect upon the hematocrit warrants further investigation.