Androgen Metabolism

Abstract

THE TERM "ANDROGEN" operationally defines a class of substances that possess certain biological activities. Among these activities are the maintenance of the structure and function of the prostate and seminal vesicles, production of the pattern of sexual hair growth characteristic of the male, increase in the sex drive of the male animal, and promotion of muscular development. Many synthetic steroids have all of these properties and are therefore androgens. Although several naturally occurring steroids are androgenic in varying degrees, depending on the bioassay system used, it is the present consensus that the physiologically important androgen in man is testosterone. The introduction of new analytical methods has resulted in a rapid expansion of our knowledge of testosterone metabolism. We shall summarize these data and try to focus current concepts on problems in clinical medicine. We have limited this discussion to studies in man and a few relevant experiments with animals. For