Age Changes in the Ovary 145 



clear, nor is it certain for how long into old age the increased 

 titres of gonadotrophin continue. 



It is certainly reasonable, at first sight, to believe that the 

 menopause develops in women because the ovary is no longer 

 capable of responding to gonadotrophin, but the evidence 

 on this point is not very strong and even contradictory. 

 Kurzrok and Smith (1938) found that the response to treat- 

 ment with a pregnant mare serum extract gradually decreased 

 as the age of the patient increased. The ovaries of two women 

 aged sixty-three and sixty-six did not respond at all. Westman 

 (1934), on the other hand, believed that he restored ovarian 

 function in two women aged fifty-one and forty-eight, who 

 had stopped menstruating, by giving them transfusions of 

 blood from pregnant women which contained an anterior 

 pituitary-like gonadotrophin. Waldeyer (1934), in a criticism 

 of this w^ork, described seven menopausal women in whom 

 ovarian function apparently restarted after an interval of 

 four or five years without any treatment and referred to other 

 reports that regular menstrual periods may recur seven or 

 even nine years after the menopause. Waldeyer also quoted 

 the work of Tschertok and Penkow who treated seven meno- 

 pausal women with extracts of pregnancy urine unsuccessfully. 



The disappearance of ova from the ovary does not necess- 

 arily mean that the post-menopausal ovary is an entirely 

 inert organ (see Wallart, 1942). Woll, Hertig, Smith and 

 Johnson (1948) also believe that the stromal elements may 

 become hyperplastic as a result of stimulation by pituitary 

 gonadotrophin and that the occurrence of carcinoma of the 

 uterus can be correlated with such changes. 



As far as is known no such abrupt menopause occurs in 

 other species, but the information available is extremely 

 scanty, either because the animals die too soon in their 

 natural habitat, or are killed too soon for economic reasons. 

 Information about the reproductive life in apes and monkeys 

 is especially lacking. Zuckerman (1947) describes a baboon 

 which was fully mature and menstruating in 1929 and which 

 was still menstruating in 1947. (The animal is still alive and 



