EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL TEMPERATURE, HUMIDITY, AND ANESTHESIA SYSTEM

wear their own brassieres during the entire postpartum period, which in itself is an additional indication of the minimal swelling permitted by the action of the prepara¬ tion that we studied. Hospital breastbinders were re¬ quired for the other 14 patients. No limit was placed on either the amount or the nature of the patients' fluid intake. There were no incidents of delayed breast congestion in any of the entire group after the initial engorgement and stasis had subsided, and there were no cases of mastitis. Each of six patients, after returning to her home, reported that there had been one day when milk was secreted by her breasts, but in each case it was unassociated with any swelling or discomfort, and no treatment or special care was required. One patient reported the appearance of milk for six weeks. Six other patients lactated in the hospital for periods of less than 48 hours. In one patient a noninflammatory lactocele developed that was somewhat painful but that absorbed spontaneously. From the 42 women who were able to compare the effects of testosterone cyclopentylpropio¬ nate with other methods of lactation control, the favor¬ able opinion of 36 was "better" or "much better," while the remaining 6 felt there was little difference. We observed that there was a decided absence of the uncontrollable passing depression that some women ex¬ perience sometime during the first week of the lying-in period and that has been referred to by the colloquialism, "fifth day blues." The favorable protein anabolic action attributed to androgens was probably responsible. The single 100 mg. dose of androgenic hormone such as we used was too small to have any masculinizing effe'cts on the adults of this series, and the preparation that we used did not cause any local irritation or unpleasant systemic reactions. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Our experiment reveals that a single injection of 100 mg. of testosterone cyclopentylpropionate in cottonseed oil (Depo-testosterone) given intramuscularly during the intrapartum or early postpartum period is an alto¬ gether sufficient and satisfactory method to adopt for the control of lactation and to minimize the degree and duration of the pain caused by puerperal breast engorge¬ ment in nonnursing mothers. The results are better than heretofore obtained by the repeated administrations of estrogen and other forms of androgen, and the single dose method is more acceptable to the patients.