Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: To assess the data of the registry concerning women with acromegaly.

Materials and methods: Russian hypothalamic and pituitary tumors registry database, containing the information on 3968 acromegalic patients.

Results: From all patients with acromegaly registered in the database, 2878 patients (72.5%) are women. We assessed the following data on gonadal status and reproductive function in this group: 512 patients have irregular menses, 117 patients have complaints on low libido, 90 complain of galactorrhea, 71 reported inability to conceive. 26 patients had hypogonadism prior to diagnosis, 60 after pituitary surgery, 15 after pituitary radiation therapy. 44 patient were pregnant during the disease. In the group of patients with active disease (n=907), 11% have pituitary microadenomas, 43% macroadenomas, in 46% of patients there is no data regarding current pituitary tumor size. Transnasal transsphenoidal pituitary surgery was performed in 291 patients, 75 patients underwent radiotherapy, 527 and 242 patients are treated with somatostatin analogues and dopamine agonists respectively. Data on disease state is available in 1927 patients (67%): 29.7% have remission, 23.2% have partial remisson, 47.1% have active disease.

Conclusions: Russian hypothalamic-pituitary tumors registry contains useful clinical data on acromegalic patients. However, the data concerning gonadal status and reproductive function is lacking. It could be explained by either low rate of complaints itself or by lack of active assessment by physicians. Thus, it is essential to drive health care practitioners towards more active gonadal status and reproductive function assessment in women with acromegaly, because the rate of reproductive disorders in this group of patients may be higher than in population.