Extensive biologic and clinical investigations of the process of aging have demonstrated a general decrease in testicular activity with increasing age. With the recent elaboration of adequate chemical methods (primarily chromatographic techniques (1–6)) for the determination of androgenic and related steroids (C19) or corticoids (C21 steroids) estimates of hormonal synthesis and release by the testis and adrenal have become possible. Particular application of chromatography, and especially paper chromatography, has been made to systematic studies of the changes in urinary 17-ketosteroid excretion with increasing age (7–10). On the basis of results from such studies and from experiments in which the recovery of orally administered steroids as individual urinary 17-ketosteroids was determined (11), approximate values have been calculated for the daily secretion of androgens and corticosteroids in men and women (12).

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