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Future Aspects in Contraception pp 179–189Cite as

Male contraception with LHRH agonists

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Abstract

Stimulated by the unexplained lack of success of LHRH and its agonists in the treatment of infertility in men1, we investigated in detail the effect of acute and chronic administration of these peptides on testicular functions in experimental animals. We then made the observation that short-term administration of an LHRH agonist to adult male rats leads to a loss of testicular LH and prolactin receptors, as well as to decreased serum testosterone levels accompanied by inhibition of ventral prostate, seminal vesicle and testis weight2–5. It is of great interest that, among the species so far studied, man is the most sensitive to the inhibitory effect of treatment with LHRH agonists on testicular steroidogenesis5,6. In fact, while, in the rat, treatment with LHRH agonists increases 5α-reductase activity and formation of 3α-androstanediol as well as 5α-dihydrotestosterone, which can partially counteract the inhibitory effect on testosterone production5,7, no such effect is seen in man, where androgen biosynthesis can be completely inhibited and medical castration is thus achieved relatively easily with no secondary effect other than those related to low circulating androgen levels5,8,9.

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Authors
  1. A. Belanger
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  2. F. Labrie
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  3. Y. Tremblay
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  4. A. Dupont
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  5. R. St-Arnaud
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Gynaecological Endocrinology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Heidelberg, D-6900, Heidelberg 1, West Germany

    B. Runnebaum , T. Rabe  & Ludwig Kiesel ,  & 

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© 1985 MTP Press Limited

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Belanger, A., Labrie, F., Tremblay, Y., Dupont, A., St-Arnaud, R. (1985). Male contraception with LHRH agonists. In: Runnebaum, B., Rabe, T., Kiesel, L. (eds) Future Aspects in Contraception. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4910-2_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4910-2_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8675-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-4910-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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