Progress and therapy of stress amenorrhea.

Thirty-two patients with stress amenorrhea of less than 1 years duration were found to have withdrawal bleeding after progestin administration, normal serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) levels, and good responsiveness to LH-releasing hormone (LH-RH); ovulation was induced following the admininstration of clomiphene citrate. On the other hand, in 11 of 14 patients with stress amenorrhea of longer than 1 years duration, no bleeding followed the administration of progestin, and there were noted high serum FSH and LH levels, exaggerated release responsiveness to LH-RH, and atrophic vaginal smears and endometrium. In addition, it was difficult to induce ovulation by various treatments. The findings suggest that dysfunction in the hypothalamic cyclic (not tonic) center regulating ovulation was the originating factor in the amenorrhea in question and that ovulation should be induced at least once yearly to prevent ovarian function from declining in this type of anovulatory state existing for more than 1 year.