[The characteristics of the sexual development of boys suffering from obesity]

RIA tests to determine the blood levels of gonadotropins, prolactin and different fractions of androgens have shown that the time course of the endogenous level of gonadotropins and androgens in boys aged 9 to 16 with Il-III degree of obesity without clinical signs of disturbed puberty is of the same type as that in healthy boys. However much lower concentrations of testosterone and FSH with a high level of LH and dehydroepiandrosterone were noted in the former. A single administration of chorionic gonadotropin has shown that in normal puberty first develops a mechanism of rapid excretion of testosterone into blood with its maximum concentration in 24-48 h, followed by the development of a mechanism of long-term activation of androgenesis at later stages of puberty. Obese boys with delayed puberty after the type of adiposogenital dystrophy or the syndrome of wrong puberty, demonstrate a more marked blood level of testosterone and FSH than in normal puberty. The clinical level of delayed puberty is determined by the peculiarities of the hypothalamohypophyseal system: the syndrome of wrong puberty is characterized by a sharp rise of adrenal androgenesis leading to premature pubarche, a decrease in the sensitivity of gonads to LH with a simultaneous rise of its blood concentration. Moderate activation of androgenesis in the adrenal glands was observed in false adiposogenital dystrophy, the prepubertal level of LH secretion being preserved.