Hormone-Induced Changes in the Female Genital Tract

Abstract

Steroid hormones administered to a woman may induce changes in many tissues but it is their effects on the endometrium which most frequently pose a problem to the pathologist, and it is to these that this section is particularly directed. The use of exogenous hormones, either for contraceptive purposes, as therapy for disease states or as replacement for a diminished or absent production of endogenous hormones, is now so widespread that a pathologist called upon to interpret endometrial histology must insist upon a detailed history of the possible exposure of the patient to hormones: furthermore, a full knowledge of the administration of non-hormonal drugs is also mandatory for some of these may, as a side-effect, influence pituitary or ovarian function and hence alter endometrial morphology, e.g. the hyperprolactinaemia resulting from the use of dopamine antagonists in the treatment of psychiatric disorders.