EFFECTS OF STEROID HORMONES UPON THE DEVELOPMENTAL SEPARATION OF THE PREPUCE FROM THE GLANS PENISa

IT has been reported that by the tenth day after birth the normal separation of the prepuce from the glans penis has become complete enough “to allow mechanical retraction without danger of a tear.”b However there are still those infants who are said to present clinical indications for circumcision. From experimental studies in animals it would seem that in these infants such therapeutical agents as androgen might be as effective as cutting. In rodents, a developmental separation similar to the normal one of puberty may be induced experimentally by subjecting immature ground squirrels to subcutaneous injections of androgen (16). Similar observations in the rat and the mouse have been made (9, 14). It has also been found that in the rat the local application of androgen to the penis is followed by considerable growth of this organ (18). The first objective of the present study was to determine whether androgen applied to the prepuce of rodents would cause a separation of the foreskin without causing an extensive growth of the penis. The second objective was to determine whether steroid hormones given in this manner to infants would accomplish the same purpose as circumcision without causing undesirable “side effects.”