Your pituitary gland is about the size of a pea and is situated in a bony hollow, just behind the bridge of your nose. It is attached to the base of your brain by a thin stalk. The pituitary gland is often called the master gland because it controls several other hormone glands in your body, including the thyroid and adrenals, the ovaries and testicles.
It secretes hormones from both the front part (anterior) and the back part (posterior) of the gland. Hormones are chemicals that carry messages from one cell to another through your bloodstream.
If your pituitary gland is not producing sufficient amounts of one or more hormones this is called hypopituitarism.
If, on the other hand, you are over-producing certain hormones, then you would have features due to the over production of the specific hormone concerned.
For more information about the pituitary gland and more, as well as educational resources, visit the Society for Endocrinology's 'You and Your Hormones' website
The hypothalamus, which controls the pituitary by sending messages, is situated immediately above the pituitary gland.
This serves as a communications centre for the pituitary gland, by sending messages or signals to the pituitary in the form of hormones which travel via the bloodstream and nerves down the pituitary stalk. These signals, in turn, control the production and release of further hormones from the pituitary gland which signal other glands and organs in the body.
The hypothalamus influences the functions of temperature regulation, food intake, thirst and water intake, sleep and wake patterns, emotional behaviour and memory.
The most common problem with the pituitary gland occurs when a benign tumour (used to describe a 'growth’), also called an adenoma, develops.
Pituitary tumours are not 'brain tumours'. The term benign is used by doctors to describe a swelling which is not cancerous. Some pituitary tumours can exist for years without causing symptoms and some will never produce symptoms.
Most pituitary tumours occur in people with no family history of pituitary problems and the condition is not usually passed on from generation to generation. Only very occasionally are tumours inherited - for example, in a condition known as multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN1).
By far the most common type of tumour (about half of all cases) is the 'non-functioning’ tumour.
This is a tumour which doesn’t produce any hormones itself. It can cause headaches and visual problems or it can press on the pituitary gland, causing it to stop producing the required amount of one or more of the pituitary hormones. This effect can also occur following treatment you are given for a tumour, such as surgery or radiotherapy.
Alternatively, your pituitary tumour may begin to generate too much of one or more hormones.
The more common pituitary conditions include acromegaly, Cushing's, diabetes insipidus, hypogonadism, hypopituitarism and prolactinoma.
Sometimes called the "master gland," the pituitary gland is the primary influencer of how your other glands operate. The pituitary gland secretes and stores hormones, which it uses to stimulate your other glands. Your hormones regulate a variety of body functions, such as temperature, urine production, thyroid activity, growth in children, and the production of sex hormones (testosterone in men and estrogen in women). This makes your pituitary gland pretty important.
Specifically, your pituitary gland manufactures eight different types of hormones: thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), luteinising hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), prolactin, growth hormone, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), antidiuretic hormone (ADH), and oxytocin.
Your pituitary gland receives messages from another part of your brain (the hypothalamus), which has itself received messages from the environment or other areas of your body. For example, if one of your hormone levels gets too low, your hypothalamus will send a message via hormones to your pituitary gland. In response, your pituitary gland secretes hormones of its own and sends them through your blood stream like little messengers. If all is going as it should, these hormones reach the gland that had not been producing enough of its own hormones. The hormones from your pituitary gland then stimulate new hormone production out of the misbehaving gland. If a gland is overproducing hormones, then your pituitary gland will send the message to lower hormone production.
Your pituitary gland can begin to malfunction if a tumor develops and begins to exert pressure on it. The area in your pituitary gland that is the most vulnerable to dysfunction is the area that produces sex hormones.
The pituitary gland secretes and stores hormones, which it uses to stimulate your other glands. Your hormones regulate a variety of body functions, such as temperature, urine production, thyroid activity, growth in children, and the production of sex hormones (testosterone in men and estrogen in women).
联系客服
