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The Disappearance of Opioidergic Regulation of Gonadotropin Secretion in Postmenopausal Women^*

R. L. REID, M. E. QUIGLEY and S. S. C. YEN

Department of Reproductive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine (T-002) La Jolla, California 92093

In postmenopausal women, the administration of β-endorphin in repeated pulses (1–2.5 mg) at 1- to 2-h intervals or constant infusion (1 mg/h) for 3–6 h elicited the prompt release of PRL without concomitant change in LH levels. Infusion of an opiate receptor antagonist, naloxone (1.6 mg/h), for 6–7 h also had no effect on LH levels. Since substantial evidence indicates that endogneous opioid peptides exert an inhibitory role on GnRH-LH secretion and that the functional activity of opiate receptors appears to be ovarian steroid dependent, the present observation suggests that the hypersecretion of gonadotropin in the absence of ovarian steroid feedback may, in part, be causally related to a reduced opioid inhibition of GnRH-LH release.

^* This work was supported by NIH Grant HD-12303 and in part by the UCSD General Clinical Research Center NIH/Division of Research Resources (Grant RR-00827). This research was conducted in part by the Clayton Foundation for Research, California Division.

Fellow in Reproductive Endocrinology supported by the Medical Research Council of Canada.

Clinical Physician, General Clinical Research Center, UCSD.

Investigator for the Clayton Foundation. To whom all correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed.

Received February 10, 1983.

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