[Sex differences in the blood glucose fall induced by short fasts (author's transl)]

Overnight fasting venous plasma glucose concentration was lower in premenopausal women than in men. This difference increased during a low caloric and low carbohydrate diet and above all after a 48 h fasting period. Venous blood glucose variation during this period of fasting was the same in post-menopausal women as in men. These facts and the previous observation by our group of a fall in fasting and post absorptive venous blood glucose after intramuscular injection of oestradiol benzoate (10) indicate that sex variations in the blood glucose fall following a period of fasting are at least partly linked to the oestrogenic status of the premenopausal woman.