COMPARISON OF EFFECTIVENESS OF THREE TESTOSTERONE PREPARATIONS IN MAN AND RATS

Abstract

SUBSTITUTIVE therapy of endocrine deficiencies attempts, as far as possible, to emulate the normal secretory activity of the gland in question. In the treatment of eunuchoidism this has been reasonably accomplished by injection of testosterone propionate in oil (1) or of testosterone in aqueous suspension (2). Both these preparations have a rather protracted activity and therefore the need for multiple injections is reduced. Recently another testosterone preparation, testosterone β-cyclopentylpropionate (TCP), was made available to us for clinical trial and it was deemed advisable to compare its effects with those of the propionate and the aqueous suspension, in the therapy of male hypogonadism. Its androgenic activity was also tested in laboratory animals. METHODS AND RESULTS Urinary 17-ketosteroid excretion following testosterone propionate in oil and testosterone in aqueous suspension In the first part of this investigation, 7 patients with primary hypogonadism were given testosterone propionate in oil initially and later, an equal dose of aqueous suspension of testosterone with an interval of from four to twelve weeks between each administration. Six patients (Cases 1 through 6) received a single intramuscular injection of from 100 to 300 mg. of each of the preparations, with no allowance made for the difference in molecular weight of the two compounds. In Case 1 the dose in both instances was 100 mg.; in Cases 2, 3, 4 and 5, the dose was 200 mg. each, and in Case 6 it was 300 mg. Another patient (Case 7) received both preparations in four doses of 50 mg. each, over a period of six days. The following are brief records of Cases 1 through 7: