THE TREATMENT OF PREPUBERAL VULVOVAGINITIS WITH A NEW SYNTHETIC ESTROGEN

Abstract

The first attempt to treat vulvovaginitis in infants and children with estrogenic biologic substance was in 1933, when Lewis¹used it intramuscularly in eight cases. He succeeded in curing six cases. Subsequent attempts by others resulted in variable responses. Te Linde and Brawner²were successful in curing only one case in eleven, and Witherspoon³failed to obtain any successful result in ten cases. On the other hand, Goldberg, Minier and Smith⁴cured seven of nine cases and Limper and Hieronymus reported cures in twenty-four of their series of twenty-seven cases. All these investigators used the biologic estrogens intramuscularly and in suppositories, because attempts to administer them orally had been unsatisfactory. For example, Te Linde⁵used them orally in doses of from 3,000 to 16,000 international units for periods of from sixty-nine to 123 days without success. British physicians also used daily doses of from 3,000