Endocrine Abstracts

Defending body weight is a fundamental homeostatic process. Indeed, countless studies have demonstrated weight-maintaining hyperphagia in response to either increased energy expenditure or a reduction in the caloric density of available food. The principal effector of this adaptive food intake is thought to be the adipose tissue-derived hormone, leptin. According to the classical ’adipostat’ model, the hypoleptinemia resulting from weight loss drives food intake to r...

Menopause management guidelines advocate a personalised, evidence-based approach to menopause-care. This study explored the current landscape of menopause-care, from both patients’ and healthcare-providers’ perspectives, to better understand barriers to menopause-care across the UK.Methods: A 25-question online patient-survey and a 23-question GP-survey was designed with individuals with lived-experience of menopause to underst...

Introduction: Kallmann syndrome (KS) is a rare genetic disorder typically due to defective migration of olfactory-axons and GnRH-neurons. KS results in congenital hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism (CHH) typically associated with absent (anosmia) or reduced (microsmia) sense of smell. Unilateral hypoplastic/absent olfactory bulbs on MRI are reported, although disturbance in smell is usually bilateral. Here, we present an unusual case of KS with unilateral anosmia....

Introduction: Kallmann syndrome (KS) is a rare condition characterised by congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH), usually due to defective migration of olfactory axons and GnRH-neurons. KS is typically associated with absent (anosmia) or reduced (microsmia) sense of smell. Unilaterally hypoplastic or absent olfactory bulbs on MRI are reported, although disturbance in smell is usually bilateral. Kisspeptin is a potent stimulator of hypothalamic GnRH-neurons, and endocri...

Case history: A 25-year-old woman presented with secondary amenorrhoea present since aged 18yrs. She had spontaneous albeit late menarche aged 16yrs and five menstrual periods over the subsequent two-years, before complete menstrual cessation. She denied other medical history, psychological stress, excessive exercise, or regular medications. Notably, she reported normal sense of smell via her right nostril, but anosmia via her left nostril. Family history included a diagnosis ...

Case history: Our patient presented with primary amenorrhoea and incomplete puberty aged 15 yrs. Based on BMI >40 kg/m2 from early adolescence, clinical hyperandrogenism, family history of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and insulin resistance, she was diagnosed with PCOS and commenced on a combined oral contraceptive (COC), achieving breast development. Aged 21yrs, she was reassessed for amenorrhoea of COC. Biochemical assessment revealed hypogonadotrophic hy...

Background: The neuropeptide kisspeptin is a critical endogenous activator of the reproductive system, with escalating clinical interest as a novel therapeutic agent for reproductive and psychosexual disorders. However, conflicting animal data suggest that kisspeptin can have anxiolytic, neutral, or anxiogenic effects. Given the rapid development of kisspeptin-based therapeutics, it is important to clarify kisspeptin’s effects on psychometric measures of anxiety and assoc...

Loss of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and cognitive deficits have recently been demonstrated by our group in conditions including Down syndrome and Alzhiemer’s disease. In some patients with COVID-19, olfactory and cognitive alterations persist, and persistent hypotestosteronemia in SARS-CoV-2-infected men could be a consequence of deficient GnRH. To understand whether neuroinvasion of GnRH system by SARS-CoV-2 could explain some post-COVID symptoms and thus resul...