Endocrine Abstracts

The Guideline ‘Menopause: Diagnosis and Management’ was published by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK in November 2015, the aim being to improve the knowledge level of both health care professionals and their patients regarding the menopause and to standardise care across the UK. Recommendations were developed following the systematic review of the current evidence-base. Each review question posed (17 in all) was subject to system...

Puberty is a major developmental event in the life-course of any individual that is under the control of sophisticated regulatory networks, which integrate central and peripheral signals, as well as environmental cues. Among its numerous modifiers, puberty is highly sensitive to metabolic signals, and different metabolic stressors, ranging from subnutrition to morbid obesity, are known to have a discernible impact on the tempo of puberty, which might have a durable impact on d...

The genetic control of puberty remains an important but mostly unanswered question. Late pubertal timing affects over 2% of adolescents and is associated with adverse health outcomes including short stature, reduced bone mineral density and compromised psychosocial health. Self-limited delayed puberty (DP) is a highly heritable trait, which often segregates in an autosomal dominant pattern; however, its neuroendocrine pathophysiology and genetic regulation remain unclear. Usin...