If a deficiency of sex gland hormone takes place after adolescence, the changes include a retardation of the growth of the beard and thinning of the skin with lessened pigmentation, and perhaps also a diminution or complete absence of hair under the arms and around the sex organs. Interestingly there is also a failure to grow hairs on the ear, which is rather typical of men past twenty-five or thirty years of age.
After men have matured and have reached the age of forty-five or fifty, they do not usually suffer the changes that come on in women about the same time and which are known as the “climacteric.” The specialists believe that this is due to the fact that the sexual function of men declines gradually, rather than abruptly as occurs with women. The changes that occur in men are not visible in any way in the structure of the body, since this has been well established by the age of forty-five, but are more definitely related to the functions of the body and to, symptoms that manifest themselves often in the nervous system.
When there is an absence of sex gland material, as is determined by some of the signs that have been described, administration of the artificially-prepared material is now possible, due to the development of the glandular material called testosterone. The amount of the material to be given and the duration of the time over which it is to be given depends, of course, on the condition of the patient, whom the doctor watches carefully. Actually there may be the growth of pimples, and in the case of women a tendency towards a masculine appearance from too much sex gland material. There are also effects on the handling of salt and water by the body. It has been established that excesses of testosterone, particularly in young boys, may result in difficulty in the development of sperm cells necessary for reproduction.