[Hypothalamic amenorrhoea, following deficient nutrition (author's transl)]

Clinical and hormonal examinations were applied to 30 patients with secondary amenorrhoea, following loss of weight, and to another 24 women with nervous anorexia. Low age, secondary amenorrhoea, and unambiguous loss of weight were typical of all patients. In patients with hypothalamic syndrome, following loss of weight, both psychic condition and appetite were found to be normal, whereas psychogenic aversion against appetite was recordable from patients with nervous anorexia. Oestrogens were slightly reduced in patients with hypothalamic syndrome, following loss of weight, but they were strongly down in the presence of nervous anorexia. Gonadotrophin values were normal or low in patients with hypothalamic syndrome, following loss of weight, but they were clearly reduced in the second group. The LH-RH test usually was normal in patients with hypothalamic syndrome, following loss of weight, but it was pathological in almost all cases of nervous anorexia, depending on the amount of weight loss.