Sex differences in anaesthetic toxicity: fluroxene and trifluoroethanol in mice.

A sex difference in postanaesthetic mortality after fluroxene anaesthesia was found in Swiss Webster mice. More males succumbed than females. This toxicity was biotransformation-dependent and could be reversed by pretreatment with "opposite" sex hormones. The toxicity of the fluroxene metabolite trifluoroethanol also was more marked in male mice, but was only partially influenced by microsomal enzyme inhibitors or stimulators, or by sex hormones.