HYPOGONADISM

Similar to Graves’ Disease, wherein it affects a specific gland inside the body (the thyroid gland for Graves’ Disease), hypogonadism also affects a gland that produces essential chemicals for one’s body. However, this disease affects the sex glands wherein it provides little to no sex hormones that are essential in one’s control over their sexual characteristics, such as breast development for women, testicular development for men, and pubic hair growth for both genders.

The sex glands that are mainly affected for each gender are named the testes for men, and the ovaries for women, respectively, wherein both of the sex glands are called gonads. Take note that sex hormones are also essential for menstrual cycles for women and sperm production for men.

Its other name is gonad deficiency; in some cases, it is called low serum testosterone or andropause for men.

TYPES

Currently, there are two types of hypogonadism that has been recorded by medical experts around the world, which are listed below:

Primary Hypogonadism. For this type of the disease, this means that an infected individual lacks sex hormones in their body due to the low production that is caused by having problems with their gonads. This is also where it is diagnosed that your brain is still sending signals to your gonads for production of sex hormones, but are unable to do so due to the complications the gonads are currently facing.

Central (Secondary) Hypogonadism. In this type of the disease, the gonads are not the cause of this disease but instead, the patient’s brain, wherein the hypothalamus and pituitary gland (the parts of the brain responsible for controlling your gonads) are not working correctly, resulting in the disease developing in the patient’s gonads.

For Primary Hypogonadism, the main factors are various disorders such as autoimmune disorders (i.e., Addison’s disease and Hypoparathyroidism), genetic disorders (i.e., Turner Syndrome, Klinefelter syndrome), severe infections, liver and kidney diseases, undescended testes, hemochromatosis, radiation exposure, and surgery on the sexual organs.

For Central (Secondary) Hypogonadism, its main factors considered are the following: genetic disorders (i.e., Kallmann Syndrome), infections like HIV, pituitary disorders, inflammatory diseases (i.e., sarcoidosis, tuberculosis, and histiocytosis), obesity, rapid weight loss, nutritional deficiencies, use of steroids or opioids, brain surgery, radiation exposure, pituitary gland or hypothalamus injury, and a tumor inside or near the pituitary gland.

SYMPTOMS

There are two kinds of symptoms for this disease, mainly for men and women, which are listed below separately:

Symptoms for men:

  • Body hair loss
  • Loss of muscles
  • Abnormal breast growth
  • Growth of the penis and testicles are severely reduced
  • Erectile dysfunction
  • Osteoporosis
  • Having low to absent sex drive
  • Infertility
  • Fatigue
  • Hot flashes
  • Having difficulties in concentrating

Symptoms for women:

  • Lack of menstruation
  • Breast growth being slow or absent at all
  • Hot flashes
  • Body hair loss
  • Having low to missing sex drive
  • Having milky discharges from the breasts

TREATMENT

Having two kinds of symptoms for either men or women, treatment for Hypogonadism also has two types. Below are the treatments for each gender:

Treatment for Male Hypogonadism

The primary treatment is via Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT), wherein there are several methods, which are listed below:

  • Patching
  • Gel application
  • Lozenges
  • Injections

Take note that the side effects of having TRT via injection include the triggering of puberty in the patient or having an increase in sperm production.

Treatment for Female Hypogonadism

The main target of treatments for females is the sex hormones. The main form of treatment would be via estrogen therapy, especially if a female patient had a hysterectomy before. Aside from estrogen therapy, a female patient would be given patches or pills as supplements for estrogen.

However, if the female patient did not have hysterectomy beforehand, a combination of estrogen and progesterone medications would be given instead to avoid the risks of having endometrial cancer due to the side effects of estrogen.

If there are other symptoms, they should be solely addressed, like the female patient receiving a low dose of testosterone if she is suffering from a low sex drive.

Universal Treatment for Both Genders

Besides gender-specific treatments, there are also universal treatments for both genders, namely, radiation treatment, medications, and surgeries.

Please take note that hypogonadism is a life-long disease, and requires continuous treatment for affected individuals suffering from it.

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