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Urinary excretion of testosterone, epitestosterone, androstendion, and 7-keto-dehydroepistendion was studied in 34 healthy men, aged from 20 to 72 years. The maximal excretion of these steroids and observed in men, aged between 20 and 30 years; their reduction was noted with the advance of age.

The authors present the results of determination of the testosterone and androstendion excretion in the patients with various forms of hypogonadism and in healthy men. Testosterone excretion was decreased in the patients with hypogonadism, against the background of normal or increased androstendion excretion whereas the degree of deviations of the testosterone/androstendion ratio depended on the clinical variant of hypogonadism. Thus, retarded or decreased accumulation of the enzymes in the testes responsible for the change from the "child" to the "mature" type of steroid biosynthesis could serve as a mechanism of hypogonadism occurrence, which should be taken into consideration in the elaboration of the methods of syndrome therapy of this type of pathology.

The results of studying the excretion of testosterone and other androgens with the urine after a chorionic gonadotropin load in patients with ischemic heart disease and in persons who had suffered from acute myocardial infarction are discussed. In choriogonin load stimulating the gonads, there is noticeable variability in the excretion of testosterone and epitestosterone, androstenedione, and 7-keto-dehydroepiandrosterone in the urine. The data obtained are evidence of reduced functional reserves of the sex glands in some of the patients.

The author elaborated a method of study of the urinary excretion of the testosterone and androstendione glucoronides and applied it in 20 women (4 healthy women of reproductive age, 10 women at the postmenopause with a climacteric neurosis, and 7 healthy women during the climacteric). In healthy women the mean values of testosterone and androstendione urinary excretion showed no significant difference from those in women of the reproductive age and during the climacteric. It is supposed that the level of urinary excretion of these hormones showed but little change with the progress of age. As to women with a climacteric neurosis, there was no significant change of the mean values of urinary excretion to testosterone and androstendione in comparison with healthy women of the same age. This suggests that the androgenic function of the adrenal glands in this neurosis showed no significant change. Patients with a climacteric neurosis displayed higher variations in the values of the urinary excretion of testosterone and androstendione glucoronides, which was possibly associated with disturbances of regulation of the production of the androgens by the hypothalamic centres.