Endocrine Abstracts

Hypogonadotropic hypogonadism as a part of hypopituitarism can be a cause of persistent amenorrhea and hypoestrogenemia in women of reproductive age as it is observed in postmenopause. We know that premature and early menopause leads to accelerated aging with such markers as decreased quality of life, phyco-emotional deprivation, dyslipidemia, bone mineral density and others. We hypothesized that untreated hypogonadism in young women with hypopituitarism could cause premature aging. Clinical symptoms, hormonal levels, lipid and mineral metabolism, BMI, BMD and quality of life (GHQ-28) were evaluated in young women with hypopituitarism (n=49, 25[22;31] y.o.), healthy age-matched young women (YW n = 53, 24[23;28] y.o.) and middle-aged women with natural postmenopause (PM n = 50, 56[53;59] y.o.) were compared. Duration of amenorrhea and postmenopause was similar (median 5 and 6 years, P=0.9). Hypopituitarism group included patients with organic pituitary lesions, hypothyroidism and hypocortisolism were compensated. The prevalence of general, neurovegetative and psychoemotional symptoms was significantly higher in women with hypopituitarism than in YW though it was similar to PM. In contrast, common to the postmenopause vasomotor symptoms were observed less frequently in hypopituitarism. Concentrations of E2, T and DHEAS, total cholesterol, triglycerides, calcium and alkaline phosphatase as well as quality of life in women with hypopituitarism were not typical of YW but were comparable to PM. Frequency of increased BMI was higher in women with hypopituitarism (51%) than in YM (11%) and comparable to PM (48%). BMD in lumbar spine and femur was even lower in young patients with hypopituitarism than in postmenopausal women. Thus, clinical and biochemical abnormalities revealed in women with untreated hypogonadism at young age were similar in many aspects to those in postmenopausal women at middle/old age in spite of the age difference and various reasons for hypoestrogenemia. These findings could be considered as markers of premature ageing because the biological changes attributable to postmenopause occurred well in advance.