URINARY OESTROGEN AND PREGNANEDIOL EXCRETION, ENDOMETRIAL AND OVARIAN PATHOLOGY AND BODY WEIGHT IN WOMEN WITH POSTMENOPAUSAL BLEEDING

Summary

Urinary oestrogen and pregnanediol excretion in 102 women who had a curettage for postmenopausal bleeding was correlated with the histological appearance of the endometrium, with age and with weight, and were compared with the values obtained in 42 normal postmenopausal women. The 36 patients with proliferative and hyperplastic endometrium and the 16 patients with endometrial carcinoma had significantly higher oestrogen excretion than the controls. The 27 patients with atrophic endometrium had only slightly higher mean oestrogen values than the controls. Twenty-three patients had taken hormones and the 20 patients who bled during treatment had the same urinary hormone values as the controls (excluding three patients with ovarian and/or endometrial carcinoma). The ovaries were examined in 37 patients who had a total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. Significantly higher oestrogen values were found in those patients with ovarian tumours in which the stroma showed hyperplasia. When an ovarian tumour was associated with normal stroma or when the ovary showed cortical stromal hyperplasia without a tumour, urinary hormone values were normal. Oestrogen excretion and age were not related, but a correlation was found between oestrogen excretion and body weight.