Male and Female Hypogonadism | Medtick
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Male and Female Hypogonadism

What is it?

In males a condition in which the body doesn’t produce enough testosterone (the male sex  hormone)  or if one  has an impaired ability to produce sperm and/or both.

In females – a condition in which the body doesn’t produce enough oestrogen (the female sex  hormone) or if one  has an impaired ability to produce eggs or both.

  • Male/Female hypogonadism can begin during foetal development, before puberty or during adulthood.

There are different forms of female/male hypogonadism:

  • Males – Primary testicular failure (when the condition is with the testes i.e. structure and/or poor function)
  • Females – Primary ovarian failure (when the condition is with the ovaries i.e structure and/or poor function itself)
  • Secondary
    • Indicates a problem in the hypothalamus or the pituitary gland — parts of the brain that signal the testicles to produce testosterone (females – signals to ovaries to produce oestrogen)
    • The hypothalamus produces gonadotropin-releasing hormone, which signals the pituitary gland to make follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH).
    • Luteinizing hormone then signals the testes to produce testosterone (females – signal to ovaries to produce oestrogen).

Cause

General

Primary hypogonadism

  • Myotonic Dystrophy
  • Undescended testicles (Before birth, the testicles develop inside the abdomen and normally move down into their permanent place in the scrotum. Sometimes one or both of the testicles may not be descended at birth. This condition often corrects itself within the first few years of life without treatment. If not corrected in early childhood, it may lead to malfunction of the testicles and reduced production of testosterone)
  • Mumps infection
  • Hemochromatosis
  • Thalassaemia
  • Injury to the testicles (females -ovaries)
  • Chemotherapy or radiation therapy

Syndromes

Secondary Hypogonadism

  • Pituitary tumour or any abnormality in the pituitary gland can impair the release of hormones.
  • Hyperprolactinemia
  • Pituitary surgery or radiation therapy
  • Obesity
  • Normal aging – Older men generally have lower testosterone levels than younger men do. As men age, there’s a slow and continuous decrease in testosterone production (females the same- reduce in oestrogen)
  • Physical stress of an illness
  • Emotional stress

Treatments

  • Surgery

Syndromes

Inflammatory disease and infections

  • Histiocytosis (group of rare diseases, characterised by increased numbers of white blood cells called histiocytes in the blood and tissues)
  • Sarcoidosis

Others

Syndromes

Medication

Symptoms

Fetal development (born with condition)

Child who is genetically male may be born with:

  • Female genitals
  • Ambiguous genitals — genitals that are neither clearly male nor clearly female
  • Underdeveloped male genitals

(Females)

  • The opposite will occur to the above may occur.

Puberty and adulthood 

Complications /Information to beware of/General tips:

This condition has been associated with:

This condition may show similar symptoms to:

Please talk to your healthcare professional (i.e. Medical Doctor/Pharmacist) for further advice

Detailed Information

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