Influence of high-dosage perinatal androgen on the sexual behavior, gonadotropin secretion, and sexual organs of the rat

Abstract

Combined pre- and postnatal high-dosage androgen administration to female rats resulted in internal, external, and behavioral pseudohermaphroditism. These gonadal female animals were able to develop an epididymis, ductus deferens, seminal vesicle, prostrate, and penis. The vaginas of these animals were completely aplastic, without regression of the uterogenic part of the Müllerian duct. The sexual behavior of these animals was totally inverted: they did not display female behavior, but after androgen substitution during adulthood were strongly male, including having the ejaculatory response. Female rats which had received a one-time injection of 1.25 mg TP on postnatal day 3 displayed, after postpubertal androgen treatment, fully developed male behavior. Female-type conduct was not fully suppressed. Female rats which had received a single injection of 0.02 mg TP on postnatal day 3 and postpubertal androgenization displayed masculinized sexual behavior and kept this behavior under succeeding endogenous estrogen influence.