Pituitary Adenoma
Symptoms
The pituitary is a “small, pea-sized gland” located at the base of the brain The pituitary adenoma disease affects hormones which regulate growth and the activity of other glands in the body. However, with an abnormal growth or tumor in the master gland, the pituitary adenomas do not spread to other body parts and are not cancerous. This disease is found most likely in adults than in children and increases during adolescent years. They also tend to grow slowly, but too many hormones can cause significant problems in the body. Pituitary adenomas can cause “disturbance of vision and growth and change in hormonal balance”. Other general symptoms may be headache, infertility, fatigue, low or high blood pressure, or growth failure . Some pituitary hormones which impact the sex hormones can “make a woman produce breast milk even though she is not pregnant or nursing, or cause a man to lose his sex drive or lower his sperm count”. Because these symptoms can be indicative of so many other diseases, these tumors often go undiagnosed.
Causes
Pituitary adenoma is in the form of a tumor, pituitary tumor. Prolactinomas is the most common form of a pituitary tumor. It causes amenorrhea, galactorrhea, and infertility in females. Gigacromegaly is caused by tumors that secrete excess growth hormones.
Treatments
The small organ called pituitary adenoma helps make hormones for the growth of the body. This is a tumor that grows in the pituitary gland. There are many ways to treat this problem one being surgery. This is the common treatment used in order to get rid of that tumor. If the pituitary gland is accidentally damaged in the surgery then the way to treat it is by taking pills which replaces the hormones created. Another method for treatment is medications, which helps to shrink tumors. The two types of medicines are bromocriptine and ocreotide. Bromocriptine helps lower the prolactin levels and minimize the size of the tumor. The ocreotide is used when tumors release growth hormone and when surgery is not going to cure. The last option for treatment is radiation therapy. In this process it uses radiation to kill the tumor cells. There are three types of radiation therapy the first which is conventional therapy. In this the radiation is intended for the pituitary. The second is stereotactic radiosurgery. The tumor has a radiation beam that is intended to be serious from stereotactic radiosurgery. The last one is the proton beam radiotherapy which is a ray of protons that is directed only on the tumor. Pituitary adenoma has no procedures or preventions for this small organ.
Read more about this topic: Adrenal Gland Disorder