Growth Hormone Deficiency – Causes, Risks, Diagnosis
Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) – situation when people have more higher than normal levels of low-density lipoproteins in comparison to their high-density lipoproteins. In addition, they tend to have higher triglyceride levels.
Adults still need growth hormone, even after they stop growing. As we know, growth hormone is a protein made by the pituitary gland and released into the blood. It plays big roles for a body: healthy muscles, how our bodies collect fat (especially around the stomach area), bone density, the ratio of high density to low density lipoproteins in our cholesterol levels etc. And of course, growth hormone is needed for normal brain function.
A patient who has lack of adult growth hormone will have symptoms that include:
- Anxiety and depression
- A high level of body fat, especially around the waist
- Fatigue
- Decreased sexual function and interest
- Greater sensitivity to heat and cold
- Feelings of being isolated from other people
- Less strength, ability to exercise without taking a rest and stamina
- Less muscle (lean body mass)
- Changes in the make up of the blood cholesterol
- Lower bone density and risks to have more bone fractures as they get older.
Causes and Risk Factors
A lack of growth hormone is usually comes with the damage to the hypothalamus (a part of the brain that controls the pituitary gland) or the pituitary gland. This damage may appear due to a tumor; to radiation used to treat the tumor or surgery; or to problems with the normal levels of blood supply to the pituitary gland. In rare cases, the lack of growth hormone can be met due to an injury to the pituitary gland. A lack of growth hormone can appear either in adulthood or in childhood.
Diagnosis of Growth Hormone Deficiency
When a patient has had an injury, a history of pituitary disorders or a surgery, a doctor or endocrinologist (specialist focused on the health of hormone-secreting glands) will check person for adult growth hormone deficiency. If there is a problem with the pituitary gland or any known disorder, the doctor use to order a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan before any treatment is approved. This allows the specialists to more accurately monitor how treatment is affecting the tumor and the body.
In adults growth hormone is absorbed quickly by tissues from the blood as it circulates, so a blood test given by a healthy patient will show us low levels of growth hormone. Endocrinologists instead of this check the pituitary gland’s response stimulating it to produce growth hormone. Such growth hormone stimulation tests are done in an outpatient setting and take about 2-3 hours. It is important not to eat before the test.
Treatment of Growth Hormone Deficiency
If adult growth hormone deficiency has been confirmed, the specialist or a doctor will prescribe daily doses of growth hormones. The medicine dose is injected into the patient’s body; this can be done either by the patient himself or by a member of her or his family. Every 4-8 weeks, the patient will come to the doctor for monitoring and a blood test to help the doctor decided if more hormone is needed or less and to correct the dose.
If the patient is getting too much growth hormone, she or he will have joint or muscle pain, pain or numbness in the hands from carpal tunnel syndrome and swelling (fluid retention). In case such symptoms appear, the doctor will lower the dose of growth hormone being given.
When the deficiency of growth hormone is appeared due to a pituitary tumor, every year the secialist will monitor it with MRIs. In our days, it is not actually known whether the growth hormone will cause tumors that remain in the pituitary gland to spread.
In addition, bone density and blood cholesterol should be monitored. Both of these measures should show signs of improvement with treatments of adult growth hormone deficiency.
Growth hormone therapy should not be approved to people who have active tumors or cancer. Also it should not be prescribed to people who are seriously ill as a result of abdominal surgery or complications from open heart, who are have breathing problems or who have multiple injuries from a major accident. And of course taking growth hormone will not cause an adult to begin growing again.
Anyone who has diabetes must keep their doctors informed and to be vigilant about monitoring blood sugar levels while taking growth hormone because it can affect the way the body uses insulin.