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Twenty speakers, diagnosed as male-to-female transsexuals, produced conversational recordings of speech and voice. The samples were submitted to perceptual evaluations and to acoustic analysis by means of a Visi-Pitch, Apple IIe microcomputer system. Transsexuals categorized as having female voices had higher fundamental frequencies (fo), less extensive downward intonations, a higher percentage of upward intonations and downward shifts, and a smaller percentage of level intonations and level shifts than transsexuals categorized as having male voices. The lowest average fo identified as belonging to a female speaker was 155 Hz. Higher (more feminine) ratings on the masculinity-femininity dimension correlated with fo (r = .89), percentage of level shifts (r = -.67), percentage of downward shifts (r = .50), percentage of level intonations (r = -.43), and percentage of upward intonations (r = .40). Findings are discussed in terms of the relative perceptual salience of average fundamental frequency and patterns of intonation for female voice quality.

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The effects on hormonal treatment on the adjustment of adult males requesting sex reassignment surgery were examined in two studies. In study 1, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) profiles of 19 patients who received no hormonal therapy and 22 patients who received 12 or more months of estrogen and medroxyprogesterone acetate treatment were compared. Patients receiving hormonal therapy not only showed significantly less psychopathology, but their scores on MMPI scales indicating neurotic and study 2, using correlational techniques to assess the effects of both hormonal treatment and cross-dressing on psychopathology. Length of hormonal treatment was related to emotional adjustment on four clinical scales of the MMPI. Scores indicating greater adjustment were associated with longer periods of treatment. Length of full-time cross-dressing, on the other hand, was not associated with patients' level of adjustment. These findings have important implications for those involved in personality evaluation of transsexuals and for future research. A more rigorous criteria for psychopathology may be required for those persons already exposed to hormonal therapy. It if further suggested that personality research with presurgical transsexuals include a drug hormone history.

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Amniotic fluid (AF) and arterial blood were obtained almost simultaneously from 59 healthy third-trimester pregnant women. Oxygen and carbon dioxide tensions (Po2, Pco2), pH, bicarbonate (Bicarb), total carbon dioxide (TCO2), lactate (L), and pyruvate (P) concentrations were measured. Only AF-Bicarb, AF-TCO2, AF-pH, and AF-P showed a statistically significant correlation, negative, with gestational age. AF-Po2, AF-pH, AF-Bicarb, and AF-TCO2, were lower, and AF-Pco2 was higher than in maternal blood. Amniotic fluid lactate was about 6 times, and AF-P was 2 times higher than maternal blood levels. The latter, the low bicarbonate, and the high Pco2 all contributed to the acidic pH of AF. Amniotic fluid pH was affected by fetal and maternal variables, notably maternal pH. There was no correlation between AF-Po2 and Pao2 (arterial oxygen tension), between AF-Pco2 and Paco2 (arterial carbon dioxide tension), or between AF-L and blood L. AF-Po2, AF-Pco2, and AF-L may correlate better with the intrauterine fetal status than AF-pH. Normal values obtained in this study should be useful as a baseline to monitor changes in the intrauterine environment in abnormal prgenancies.

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Following infusion of parathyroid extract (PTE), parathyroid hormone (PTH) did not cross the placenta from the monkey mother to her fetus. Although maternal PTH levels increased four- to 12-fold, fetal PTH levels remained at the base line at all times tested. To determine if PTH crossed the placenta from fetus to mother, PTE was infused into the fetal aorta while the monkey baby remained in utero. PTH in the fetal serum increased ten-fold without a significant change in maternal serum PTH. Thus, PTH does not cross the placenta in either direction. Blood ionized calcium levels in nonpregnant female monkeys, following infusions of ethylenediaminetetra-acetate (EDTA) were shown to decrease, with a subsequent increase in blood PTH levels. Thus, the monkey arathyroid gland was shown to be physiologically responsive to lowered calcium levels. Biological half-life disappearance times of beef PTH in monkey fetuses and their mothers were similar to those found in human beings.

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Seventeen pre-eclamptic (PE), 22 hypertensive (H), and 13 normal pregnant women (C), all in the third trimester, were studied to examine the relationship of blood lactate (L) to the hyperuricemia characteristic of PE. The parameters measured were: serum and urinary uric acid, and creatinine, and lactate (L), and pyruvate (P) in the blood. Uric acid clearance (Cur), and creatinine clearance (Ccr), and fractional uric acid clearance (Fract. Cur) as well as L/P ratios were calculated. Some of the patients, from the three groups, were infused with approximately equal to 100 mEq. of sodium lactate during the course of 50 minutes. "Preinfusion," "midinfusion," and "postinfusion," determinations were compared, as well as the per cent change in the different parameters as the result of the infusion and after its discontinuation. The results showed that serum urine acid is elevated, and Cur is impaired in PE; however, L was lower in PE than in control subjects. There was no correlation between L or L/P and Cur. Lactate infusion caused comparable impairment of Cur in all groups. There was no significant difference in the response of the parameters studied, to the infusion, between the different groups. Our data cast serious doubts on the postulated role of blood lactate in the etiology of hyperuricemia in PE. Contracted plasma volume and/or local release of angiotensin II in the kidney of pre-eclamptic patients probably play a more important role.

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Hirsute women pose a diagnostic dilemma when urinary 17-ketosteroid and serum testosterone levels are normal. To locate the site of androgen excess in 19 hirsute women, blood samples were collested from the left ovarian and adrenal veins via a catheter insertedinto the right femoral vein. Laparoscopy and bilateral ovarian biopsies were also preformed in 18 of the 19 patients studied. Nine women had elevated 17ketosteroid (fivepatients) and/or antecubital serum testosterone (five patients) levels. Fourteen womanhad elevated testosterone concentrations distributed as follows: ovarian vein (six), adrenal vein (one), adrenal and ovarian veins (seven). Androstenedione was elevated in theovarian vein (seven) and both adrenal and ovarian veins (11) in 18 patients. Laparoscopic examinations revealed that less than 50 per cent of the enlarged ovaries could be detected by pelvic examination. Histologic studies suggested that these patients comprised two groups: a group (six patients) who appeared to ovulate and a group (12 patients) who lacked evidence of ovulation.

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