Acute infusion of hCG and thyroid hormone pattern before and after bilateral orchiectomy

An acute infusion of 5000 IU of hCG was given to a group of 10 elderly men affected by prostatic carcinoma prior to and 1 month after castration to evaluate the possibility of any aspecific effect on thyroid hormones. No significant change was documented for TT4 and TT3, and a significant increase in fT4 occurred only in the presurgical experiment. From these results the authors conclude that the thyroid movement documented may be correlated to the decreased binding capacity of thyroxine-binding globulins promoted by the increase in Te levels.