Synergism or Augmentation Produced by the Addition of an Hypophyseal Synergist to Menopause or Castration Urine

Corpora lutea are frequently produced in immature test animals by the administration of menopause or castration urine alone; indeed, superovulation may result. It is to be admitted that the effect of the majority of such urines is characterized by the growth of follicles only in the test animals. Nevertheless, most of the latter urines also produce abundant corpora and moderately large ovaries in test animals when combined with an hypophyseal fraction (synergist) which by itself gives infantile ovaries in the 96-hour period. This phenomenon has been observed in 30 out of 34 tests on 20 castrate or menopause patients. The ovaries stimulated by this combination weighed from 50 to 150 mg.; the synergism reached as much as 290% and averaged 108%.