Observations on morning and afternoon glucose tolerance: differences between sexes.

One hundred non-obese and non-diabetic individuals, 50 men and 50 women, were submitted to oral glucose tolerance tests performed in the morning and in the afternoon on different days. Although great individual variations were noted in both sexes, in men the mean blood sugar (BS) values did not significantly differ between the two tests; in women, however, the mean values after glucose loading were significantly higher during the afternoon test. By dividing the test population into those aged 50 and below and those over 50 it was found that only the group of younger women showed significant differences between the two tests with higher mean BS values during the afternoon test.