1390 



HORMONAL REGULATION OF BEHAVIOR 



the carcinogenic dangers of estrogen. She 

 continued to have sexual liaisons during the 

 5 years off treatment, although eventually 

 she discovered that vaginal tightness and 

 dryness due to lack of estrogen-stimulated 

 secretions was a handicap. 



The four women had been on cyclic estro- 

 gen therapy so that they menstruated on 

 withdrawal of estrogen for a week each 

 month. Following total withdrawal of estro- 

 gen, they ceased to menstruate. Vaginal 

 smears showed that the vaginal mucosa un- 

 derwent involutional changes as in post- 

 menopausal women. There were no defini- 

 tive reports of hot flashes or malaise typical 

 of the climacteric, however. 



The women reported nothing to indicate 

 any change in their erotic imagery, sensa- 

 tions, or actions. The two who were having 

 intercourse claimed that they reached the 

 climax of orgasm, the same as when taking 

 estrogen. 



The evidence from these women fits in 

 with common knowledge concerning post- 

 menopausal disappearance of estrogen in 

 ordinary women. Although there are excep- 

 tions, erotic imagery, sensations, and ac- 

 tions are not abolished, often not even less- 

 ened, in the usual course of diminished 

 estrogen production at the menopause. 



E. IMPOTENCE AND FRIGmiTY 



Except in hormone-deficient patients of 

 the hypogonadal and castrate type, im- 

 potence in men and frigidity in women are 

 usually unresponsive to treatment with gon- 

 adal hormones (Rennie, Vest and Howard, 

 1939; Cree\y and Rea, 1940; Spence, 1940; 

 Carmichael, Noonan and Kenyon, 1941 ; 

 Kenyon, 1941; Heller and Maddock, 1947; 

 Perloff, 1949) . An exception is that a small 

 proportion of frigid women have responded 

 to androgen therapy (Salmon and Geist, 

 1943). Impotence not due to hormonal in- 

 sufficiency may be due to vascular and cir- 

 culatory impairment of the genital organs. 

 Impotence has also been found associated 

 with diabetes mellitus (Rubin and Babbott, 

 1958) . Usually, impotence and frigidity not 

 responsive to hormonal treatment are said 

 to be psychogenic in origin, and the argu- 

 ment for psychogenesis is supported when 

 the disorders are not constant but dependent 

 on time, place, and partner. 



The possibility that inherited constitu- 

 tional variations among individuals play a 

 part in impotence and frigidity is suggested 

 by the data of Grunt and Young (1952) 

 and Riss and Young (1954) obtained from 

 studies of the male guinea pig. When high- 

 score and low-score animals were castrated 

 and injected with different quantities of 

 testosterone propionate, the behavior that 

 was exhibited by individual animals was 

 similar to that displayed before gonadec- 

 tomy and replacement therapy. Further- 

 more, the administration of large quantities 

 of the hormone did not alter this relation- 

 ship. Apparently in this species individuals 

 have a characteristic level of responsiveness. 

 Human males may be similar. The tissues 

 that are generally acknowledged to be re- 

 sponsive to sex hormones, such as p?ripheral 

 receptors (see below), probably do not have 

 the same threshold of responsiveness in all 

 persons, and these threshold differences are 

 probably inherited. In such cases as those of 

 impotence and frigidity due to psychic in- 

 hibition, where hormone levels are not de- 

 ficient, additional, exogenous hormone has 

 no effect on a response threshold already 

 well primed with hormone. 



F. ANDROGEN, ESTROGEN, AND EROTICISM 

 IN MEN AND WOMEN 



The relationship of estrogen to eroticism 

 in the adult female seems, after the pubertal 

 estrogenic function of maturing the repro- 

 ductive tract and feminizing the body mor- 

 phology in general, to be restricted to main- 

 taining the lubricant secretions of the 

 vagina preparatory to copulation. The pri- 

 mary estrogenic function would seem to be 

 monitoring endometrial growth in close co- 

 ordination with the gestagenic function of 

 monitoring nidation and gestation.^ 



Inasmuch as maintenance of well func- 

 tioning eroticism in men appears to be de- 

 pendent on androgen, it would be an odd 



^Benedek and Rubenstein (1942) defended the 

 thesis that the content of the dreams and psycho- 

 analytic free-associations of 15 women patients 

 could be used to predict which phase their men- 

 strual cycles had reached, as determined by vagi- 

 nal smear tests. Their hypothesis has not received 

 general acceptance (see chapter by Hampson and 

 Hampson); the collection of additional data and 

 a reconsideration of the problem would be appro- 

 priate. 



