Different Kinds of Pituitary Gland Disorders

The pituitary gland is a small gland, the size of a pea, that’s located in the brain. It’s the gland that controls almost all hormone production – even other glands that produce hormones will have some kind of reliance on the pituitary gland for their function. That’s why it’s sometimes referred to as the master gland. The pituitary works hand in hand with the hypothalamus to determine how much hormones are needed by a gland, and then it sends instructions to the actual responsible production gland. You can think of it as where the orders for hormones are processed. Sometimes though, it can malfunction, and this article looks at different kinds of pituitary gland disorders:

Diabetes Insipidus

There are two kinds of diabetes, Mellitus and Insipidus. Diabetes Insipidus occurs because of a malfunction of the pituitary gland. The hypothalamus is the one that produces the necessary hormones for urine secretion. It will pass on instructions to the pituitary gland. If the pituitary gland is not receiving these instructions as it should, the result is diabetes Insipidus. Its symptoms are excessive intake of water (one is thirsty all the time), but they pass out an amount of urine that’s almost equal to the amount of water that they took. This means that the body’s cells are not using the water to quench their thirst, they’re just requesting the water.

Acromegaly

Pituitary gland disorders like this one are pretty rare, but they do happen. What happens here is that the pituitary gland keeps sending instructions to the thyroid for growth hormone to be produced long after bones in the body has stopped growing. This means that the cells are growing, but without accompanying skeletal muscle to support them. It results in severe disfigurement. It happens mostly in the middle age, and it’s a slow disease to develop so that diagnosis can take a long time. The symptoms will be soft tissue swelling, protrusion of the jaw and eyebrows and ocular tension.

Growth Hormone Deficiency

This is one of the very rare pituitary gland disorders, and it’s the opposite of the one described above. Its severity depends on at what stage of life it strikes. If it comes when someone is still a child, it means that they will not grow at all. It happens because the pituitary gland is sending wrong messages to the thyroid, which is responsible for the production of growth hormone.

Pituitary Adenoma

These are tumours that grow in the pituitary gland. Depending on what part of the pituitary gland the tumour is sitting on, different parts of the body will be affected because the hormones needed for that part are in limited in production. Doctors are usually able to operate and remove the tumours, although it’s a very delicate procedure.

Hypopituitarism

This is another of the pituitary gland disorders that is hard to diagnose. In hypopituitarism, one or more of the 8 major hormones for which the pituitary is responsible is under-produced. It will mostly be related to sexual problems or problems with conception. It’s also a slow moving disease that has shared symptoms, and this is what makes it so hard to detect. Most pituitary gland disorders, if detected can be treated. The only problem is that they may take years to diagnose during which time the quality of ones life has been affected.

Pituitary Gland Functions

Hormones secreted from the pituitary gland help control the following body processes:

* Growth Excess of HGH can lead to gigantism.
* Blood pressure
* Breast milk production
* Sex organ functions in both men and women
* Thyroid gland function
* The conversion of food into energy (metabolism)
* Water and osmolarity regulation in the body
* Secretes ADH (antidiuretic hormone) to control the absorption of water into the kidneys
* Temperature regulation
* Some aspects of pregnancy and childbirth including stimulation of uterine contractions during childbirth