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Help! I have a new diagnosis of Pituitary/adrenal insufficiency,
I have been told that I have Pituitary Insufficiency, central hypothyroid and Adrenal Insufficiency. I have been on prednisone and levothyroxie for 2 months, and I am still so symptomatic. I have been having continued issues with internal shaking, bradycardia, shortness of breath, facial flushing , nausea, abdominal pain, etc.......and the doctor just says I "should feel better" and thar I "should be able to work." I am so frustrated. There ha a been no education, and very little follow up from any of the 20 doctors I have seen. Nobody understands. Not even the local endocrinologist. Please tell me I am not alone!
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You are not alone because I was diagnosed with the same thing. It took eight years of feeling like crap and it being overlooked. The doctors always said everything looks fine.
It wasn’t until I had Covid earlier this year, that all my symptoms of everything I’ve ever had in my life exasperated, and that was the adrenal gland insufficiency and pituitary deficiency (but take note, I never knew about that because I was misdiagnosed for years).
I finally seen in Endocrinologist and I ended up taking the 2 day Stim Test and was finally diagnosed with adrenal gland insufficiency. At first, they put me on hydrocortisone for the adrenal insufficiency, and then the doctor in the same center referred me to the pituitary specialist and he gave me another test and I was diagnosed with the pituitary deficiency because I was gaining weight also and the hydrocortisone was not working. He put me on growth hormone therapy. Genotropin is the medication name, it’s an injection that you give yourself every day. I just recently started taking it so I’m not fully feeling the full effects but that’s what you should be on, and you need to find an endocrinologist that will put you on that because you are gonna feel like crap until you get growth hormone therapy because of your pituitary gland. Hope this helps!!!
And let me add to my last comment… I have all the exact symptoms that you explained! I felt like death every day.
To test whether your adrenal glands are able to respond to stimulation by the pituitary, the physician injects you with ACTH (pituitary hormone for cortisol) and checks your blood twice over the subsequent couple of hours to look for an increase in cortisol. However, if the adrenal glands are responsive (cortisol rises), the next step is to test whether the pituitary itself is responsive to stimulation by injecting the higher level stimulating factor of the hypothalamus.