Although stress is known to inhibit the hypothalamic-pituitarygonadal axis, recent studies in the monkey show that, under certain conditions, in the presence of estrogen, stress may actually stimulate LH release. We investigated the effects of a mild inflammatory stress (2.0 -3.0 ng/kg endotoxin) on LH release in five postmenopausal women with and without transdermal estradiol (E2, 0.1 mg) replacement. In another five E2-treated women, LH release was studied when the adrenal was stimulated

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... tly by a 3-h ACTH infusion (Cortrosyn, 50 g/h ). Mean E2 levels were less than 12 pg/mL in the unreplaced subjects and were 86 Ϯ 10 pg/mL and 102 Ϯ 18 pg/mL in the two groups of E2-replaced subjects. Blood was sampled every 15-20 min for 2 h before and for 7 h after endotoxin or ACTH injection. Mean cortisol and progesterone levels increased in all three groups over time (P Ͻ 0.001). In the women without E2 replacement, basal LH was 26.8 Ϯ 5.3 mIU/mL and did not change significantly, over