This seems ridiculous to me, but it might be a hold up in getting HGH or not as it’s determined by a government’s interpretation of what doctors write.
I had an MRI and diagnosed with secondary hypogonadism because there was no tumor.
In my hospital study as to why 500mg testosterone allows for cognitive ability, masking the true cause of lower HGH, they did another two MRI’s: One that shows my pituitary is physically smaller as well as another part of my brain that determines the sense of smell (why I can’t smell but thought it was just allergies).
They’re trying to claim that taking 500mg for an excessive period (longer than 3 years) shrank my pituitary and that getting off could prove it (which I did, for 5 or so months when the MRI was taken that showed a smaller pituitary).
However, the first MRI that determined secondary hypogonadism is useless to compare because it was blurry, ruling this theory out.
Is there any such evidence anywhere that steroid abuse (as that’s what this can basically amount to) can physically shrink the pituitary (I already know about the feedback loop, but can’t believe the size can change)?
Partial empty sella syndrome can sometimes be observed in conjunction with various endocrine disorders (I.e growth hormone deficiency, hypothyroidism, hypogonadism etc)
One case reports exists regarding partial empty sella syndrome in conjunction with AAS abuse. It’s not that far off to think continually inhibiting the HTPA would lead to atrophy within the regions of the pituitary responsible for pumping out LH/FSH.
I’m not a doctor or medical professional. Did you fully go through puberty as a child/adolescent? It’s funny you mention a lack of smell + secondary hypogonadism as this can be associated with Kallmann syndrome. Though other symptoms present would’ve probably created issues if you had kallmann syndrome (skeletal defects etc)
I believe I did, but I do think I was always lacking HGH at this point as my forearms didn’t get as girthy as I believe they should have to be proportional with my arms as well as legs in comparison. Aside from height, as I am abnormally shorter, this is the only visible thing that I can conclude there was a lack of HGH.
They showed me an MRI of my brain as they checked where the sense of smell is after a smell test (smell 50 things and see if you can tell what it is, which I got like 4 right). That portion was underdeveloped, or small, along with two sensor lines (the translation of this is weird so I don’t know what it is).
This would also make me believe that the chicken, or HGH, came before the egg, or AAS abuse induced pituitary atrophy, as there is a 2nd part of my brain that is smaller? Doesn’t add up to me.
But I do appreciate the time for you to find that as I couldn’t find anything related to it.
As it’s an expensive treatment (up to $60k/yr), I think the government is trying everything not to give it to me and to blame AAS (500mg) on atrophy while overlooking the smell portion of my brain that is also physically smaller.
None of the other physical traits (micropenis, cleft lip, etc.) than just the forearms and height (parents were taller and all siblings are 6 inches to a foot taller).
Should get checked for it anyway as there’s a mix of other things in there such as vision (if I focus on something it bounces around) and I’ve never been able to make use of both hands properly either (I type at an extreme speed, but I learned to hunt and peck instead of the ASDFJKL; method because it was hard).
“Interesting” is a positive term for this speculation. I’m intrigued now…I’ll try to research a bit because this sounds more like gibberish but I hope we’ll see.