ABSTRACT
65 endometrial biopsies from castrated women who had received either natural or artificial sex hormone therapy were studied microscopically. Attention was paid to various histologic criteria, especially to the number of endometrial granulocytes (»K« cells, KZ). The following was obtained: The »K« cells are completely absent when no hormone substitution therapy is given. They were also lacking when the castrated patients were treated only with oestrogens, even if the dose given was ten-times that found in women during the reproductive ages. In contrast, the »K« cells developed from the endometrial stromal cells only under influence of progesterone, usually appearing first 8–10 days after the administration of the gestagen. The »K« cells were demonstrable in the number corresponding to a normal secretory phase only then, when the oestrogen-progesterone dosage ratio had induced a fully-developed secretory change, as measured by the usual histologic criteria. With an overdosage of oestrogen the »K« cells were either absent or were very sparse. Contrarily, an overdosage of progesterone had no influence on their number. The development of endometrial glands does not always entirely parallel that of the stroma in castrated patients following hormone therapy. A more exact indicator for the proper dose for the production of a secretory phase by hormone therapy seems to be the number of »K« cells in the endometrial stroma.
