Sex hormones in amenorrheic women with alcoholic liver disease.

Urinary excretion of estrogens and plasma concentrations of estrone, estradiol, LH, FSH, PRL, progesterone, testosterone, and sex hormone binding globulin were measured in nine chronic alcoholic women with cirrhosis or alcoholic fatty liver. They were aged 24-40 yr and all had secondary amenorrhea which had lasted for at least 3 months. The response of pituitary gonadotropin secretion to administration of LHRH and estradiol benzoate and of PRL secretion to TRH were also investigated. Urinary excretion of estrogens in the alcoholic women with liver disease was similar to that in normal postmenopausal women and less than half that in normal women of the same age in the midfollicular phase of the menstrual cycle. Plasma estradiol levels in the alcoholic women were lower than in the menstruating women but higher than in the postmenopausal women, whereas their plasma estrone levels were higher than in the menstruating women. Plasma concentrations of progesterone and testosterone in the alcoholic women did not differ from those in the postmenopausal women but were lower than in the menstruating women. In spite of the relative estrogen deficiency plasma LH and FSH levels were not elevated in the alcoholic women. The responses of LH and FSH to LHRH were similar in the patients and in the menstruating women. Intramuscular administration of estradiol benzoate did not increase plasma LH and FSH concentrations in the alcoholic women. Hyperprolactinemia was not found and there were no differences in the PRL responses to TRH between the patients and the control groups. In conclusion, disturbed regulation of gonadotropin secretion is an important factor in the genesis of estrogen deficiency and amenorrhea in alcoholic women with liver disease, although ovarian function may also be directly impaired.