Juan Giner

Low Doses of Progestogen as an Approach to Fertility Control

A clinical program was undertaken to establish the contraceptive effectiveness of minimal hormonal supplementation with chloramadinone acetate .5 mg given daily in both a cyclic and continuous pattern. Nonlactating women of proven fertility 36 years and under were given the drug daily as a contraceptive. They were all involved in an intensive study of the reproductive system. With the cyclic use of .5 mg chlormadinone acetate there were 2 pregnancies on of which was due to failure of the patient to continue the regimen. The principal side effect was intramenstrual bleeding and spotting in about 20-25% studied. Endometrial biopsies showed that the drug did not prevent the development of a normal secretory endometrium this was seen in 80 of the 109 specimens. Of 122 urinary pregnanediol determinations done 33(27%) had concentrations at ovulatory levels. In culdoscopic findings follicular activity or corpora lute were found in 18 of 19 patients studied. Contraceptive protection was also afforded with continuous administration of the drug. With continuous administration of the drug approximately 60% of the women had cycles of 24-34 days the longer cycle being more common and 80-90% had 7 or less days of bleeding per month. The endometrium showed less evidence of normal secretory activity than that seen with cyclic administration of the same drug. Preliminary studies of ovarian biopsy specimens suggest that ovulation occurs as in cyclic treatment.

Comparative Glycolytic Metabolism of Sperm from Normal, Asthenospermic, and Oligoasthenospermic Men *

The glycolysis of spermatozoa from normal, asthenospermic, and oligoasthen ospermic men was studied using a respirometry technique to measure glucose utilization by the production of 14CO2 from glucose 14C (U-L). Lactate and pyruvate were measured by a spectrophotometric method using DNA as reference. Human spermatozoa preferred glucose to fructose as the glycolytic substrate when concentrations of these hexoses did not exceed normal concentrations in the blood. Spermatozoa from oligoasthenospermic men produced an average of 3.5 times more 14CO2 (345, 457 dpm/mg DNA/hour) than did spermatozoa from asthenospermic (88,837 dpm/mg DNA/hour) and normal men (96,595 dpm/mg DNA/hour). They also formed four times more lactate (9.63 mumoles/mg DNA/hour) than spermatozoa from normal men (2.33 mumoles/mg DNA/hour) and 6.4 times more pyruvate (2.90 mumoles/mg DNA/hour compared to 0.45 mumoles/mg DNA/hour). Spermatozoa from asthenospermic men formed amounts of lactate (3.01 mumoles/mg DNA/hour) and pyruvate (0.63 mumoles/mg DNA/hour) similar to those produced by spermatozoa from normal men.

Serum lipid levels before and after vasectomy in men

The blood lipid profile was determined in sixty-two men, 24 to 62 years old, before and two, six and twelve months after surgical occlusion of the vas deferens. No statistically significant differences were found in mean body weight, blood pressure, serum levels of non-esterified fatty acids, total lipids, triglycerides, total cholesterol and alpha, beta and prebeta fractions of the lipoproteins, which were measured before and after surgery. When the serum levels of the alpha and beta fractions were considered in the same subject, it was observed that 12 months after vasectomy a similar percentage of cases showed a predominance of either one of them. Hence, no modifications on the lipid profile of these subjects were found that could indicate an increased risk of arteriosclerotic disease.

Effect of Prolactin on the Glycolytic Metabolism of Spermatozoa from Infertile Subjects**Supported in part by a grant from The Ford Foundation.

The effect of prolactin on the glycolytic metabolism of spermatozoa from married infertile men whose semen had spermatozoal concentrations of less than 40 million/ml was studied. In a respirometry system, spermatozoa were incubated with L-U-14C-glucose as substrate. Glucose utilization and production of 14C-lactate by the spermatozoa in the presence of 100 ng of ovine prolactin were greater than in the absence of the hormone. The production of pyruvate was 2.5 times less than the production of lactate wehn spermatozoa were incubated in the absence of prolactin and 1.6 times less in the presence of prolactin. These results indicate that, in spite of having an increased glycolytic metabolism, spermatozoa from oligospermic men are are able to show additional glucose utilization in the presence of prolactin.