Effects of FSH on serum immunoreactive inhibin levels in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle.

Objective: FSH causes a dose-related increase in circulating immunoreactive inhibin (INH) in the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, while LH is the major stimulus to INH secretion by the corpus luteum. The present study was undertaken to assess whether FSH can also stimulate INH production during the luteal phase.

Design: Normal volunteers were treated with a single injection of LH-free FSH (Metrodin, 150 units) or saline as control, during the early, mid- or late luteal phase of the cycle, with subsequent hormone measurements.

Serum inhibin during lactation: relation to the gonadotrophins and gonadal steroids.

Objective: The aims of the study were to describe the changes in serum immunoreactive inhibin (INH) during normal lactation and to examine the relations between INH, oestradiol (E2) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), particularly during the first weeks post partum.

Design: Blood samples were obtained from normally lactating women for hormone measurements at daily intervals until discharge from hospital, and subsequently at weekly intervals until the resumption of menses, or one year post partum.

Subjects: Eighteen breast feeding women aged 27-36 years volunteered for the study.

Perimenopausal patterns of gonadotrophins, immunoreactive inhibin, oestradiol and progesterone.

In order to assess the possible role of circulating immunoreactive inhibin (INH) during the menopausal transition, two groups of subjects were studied. Four were normal volunteers, three of whom had developed their first symptoms of cycle irregularity at age 45-46 years, the fourth being aged 37, a volunteer for a study involving daily blood sampling found to have a transient rise in serum follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). Six were patients with anovulatory infertility, aged 34-44 years, found to have transitory ovarian failure during attempts at ovulation induction.

Elevated serum inhibin concentrations in postmenopausal women with ovarian tumors.

Background: Inhibin is an ovarian hormone that inhibits the secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) by the anterior pituitary gland. Women with granulosa-cell tumors of the ovary have elevated serum inhibin concentrations, but whether the concentrations are increased in women with other ovarian tumors is unknown.

Methods: We measured serum inhibin and FSH concentrations before surgery in 212 postmenopausal women with suspected ovarian cancer and after surgery in 210 of them.

Clinical and pathophysiological aspects of inhibin.

Inhibin is a peptide hormone normally produced by the ovary. We have previously reported that serum inhibin concentrations are elevated in patients with granulosa cell tumours of the ovary. The aim of this study was to measure serum inhibin in a prospective, consecutive series of 200 patients admitted for suspected ovarian cancer.