Pituitary Disorders
The international pituitary patient community unites to combat stigma, promote early diagnosis and push for optimal treatment and care for all patients with pituitary conditions worldwide.
About Pituitary Disorders
WAPO focusses on sharing information on pituitary disorders and related topics, like radiation and surgery. And don’t forget about adrenal insufficiency and a possible crisis.
In our search for good information, we found the Federation of International Nurses in Endocrinology (FINE) willing to find funds and work out the project on all animated videos and accompanying text. With special thanks to Chris Yedinak (DNP, FNP, Associate Professor; Oregon Health & Sciences University, Portland, US) who provided all texts and videos. The medical information will be reviewed on a regular base.
With this medical information, we hope we can support as many people living with these rare diseases.
Acromegaly
Acromegaly develops when too much growth hormone (GH) is circulating through your bloodstream and then affects body cells. It’s an uncommon condition that generally affects adults between the ages of 30 and 50. The onset is slow, and acromegaly is often undiagnosed in the early stages.
Adrenal Insufficiency
Adrenal insufficiency occurs when there is not enough active cortisol to maintain the body’s needs.
Craniopharyngioma
A craniopharyngioma is a non-cancerous tumour growing above the pituitary gland. These slow growing tumours gradually invade into surrounding areas of the brain, damaging these tissues and causing compression-related symptoms.
Cushing’s syndrome and disease
Cushing’s syndrome develops if your body makes too much cortisol hormone. Symptoms usually develop gradually and so the diagnosis may not be clear for some time.
Arginine Vasopressin Deficiency (AVP-D) and Syndrome | Diabetes Insipidus
AVP-D was previously known as Diabetes Insipidus. Diabetes meaning ‘to pass through’, and insipidus ‘lacking’ did not clearly describe the problem of frequent urination owing to a lack of ADH and the inability of the kidneys to reabsorption water.
Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency
Growth hormone (GH) is a protein made in the pituitary gland and passed from there into the blood stream. GH has effects on virtually all the organs of the body, but its primary use during childhood is making children grow.
Hypopituitarism
The pituitary gland produces a number of hormones or chemicals which are released into the blood to control other glands in the body. If the pituitary is not producing one or more of these hormones, or not producing enough, then this condition is known as hypopituitarism.
Hypothyroidism
Hypothyroidism means there is insufficient thyroid hormone in the body to support metabolic needs.
Hypothalamus and Pituitary Gland
The hypothalamus is a small, but important region of the brain located close to the middle of the brain, just above the pituitary, between and behind the eyes and in front of the brain stem.
Non-Functional Pituitary Adenoma (NFA)
A non-functional adenoma (NFA) or tumor in the pituitary is an abnormal collection of cells that do not produce excessive hormone. NFAs represent about 30% of all pituitary adenomas.
Pituitary Surgery
Pituitary tumors are present in 1 in 4 people, most of whom are unaware and have no symptoms. Less than 0.1% of pituitary tumors are cancerous or malignant and less than 10% of all pituitary tumors require surgery.
Prolactinoma
A prolactinoma is a prolactin-producing tumour of the pituitary gland, and they are the most common type of hormone-producing pituitary tumour.
Radiation Treatment
When a pituitary tumour is growing or if surgical and medical treatments fail to control excess hormone production, radiation or radiotherapy is often recommended.
Want to support the disease information?
WAPO invites you to share relevant and up-to-date medical content.
We will share this information in the specific disease page. In this way, the information will grow, even in other languages.
Read more:
Factsheet Pituitary Disorders 2025, following an AdrenalNET project with a focus on employment:
20250310 factsheet pituitary disorders UK