Gonadotropin response to LH-RH in anorexia nervosa.

The gonadotropin-ovary axis of patients with anorexia nervosa was assessed with the aim of distinguishing between an intrinsically hypophysial deficiency and pituitary malfunction secondary to hypothalamic impairment. The most consistent endocrine abnormality was low serum luteinizing and follicle stimulating hormone (LH and FSH) levels associated with depressed serum estradiol levels. Gonadotropin levels responded to luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH), thus indicating a primarily hypothalamic dysfunction. The increase in serum FSH was at least as great as that of LH. The LH levels were additionally depressed and their increase after LH-RH injection somewhat blunted by three-day treatment with ethinyl estradiol.