Gonadotropin and testosterone measurements after estrogen administration to adult men, prepubertal and pubertal boys, and men with hypogonadotropism: evidence for maturation of positive feedback in the male

Abstract

Exogenous estradiol given for 5 days effected initial suppression and then elevation of luteinizing hormone (LH) and testosterone in 4 of 7 normal men and 1 physiologically castrate man. Nine pre-, early, or midpubertal boys and 2 adult men with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism exhibited only LH suppression after a similar estrogen course. Positive feedback between estrogen and the hypothalamic pituitary unit exists in men as well as in women, and may be a maturational event in both sexes.