[Age-dependent changes in epitestosterone urinary excretion in man].

Previous studies carried out by the Authors had shown an increased urinary excretion of epitestosterone, a poorly active androgen mostly believed to be of adrenal origin, after HCG administration to presenescent and aging subjects. Purpose of this study was to ascertain whether or not this held in the young too. Testosterone excretion sharply decreased after the age of 60 (P less than 0,001); 17 KS on the other hand, decreased progressively in such a way that the aging group showed significantly lower (p less than 0,05) excretion rates than the only young-adult group. ET excretion decreased steadily but not significantly with age. ET showed a very good correlation to T (p less than 0,01) both under basal and poststimulatory conditions in each of the three age groups. ET percent increase showed a good correlation (p less than 0,01) to T percent increase only in young-adult and presenescent people, not in the elderly. Poor was the correlation between ET percent increase and 17 KS percent increase. Thus ET excretion pattern showed to be somewhat different from that of T and very different from that of 17 KS. As a conclusion (a) epitestosterone excretion rate seems to decrease steadily but not significantly with age; (b) epitestosterone probably is not mainly secreted by the adrenal gland. A major source may be the testis, but liver, prostate and blood red cells metabolism are not definitely ruled out.