Testosterone is not directly involved in erections, but low levels of the male hormone can diminish a man’s desire for sex, contribute to feeling sluggish and tired and cause erectile dysfunction (ED). Low testosterone levels may be caused by another health condition that makes it difficult for a man to get or maintain an erection, such as depression, diabetes, elevated cholesterol and high blood pressure.
Endocrine System
Your endocrine system works with your nervous system to control important bodily functions. The endocrine systems responsibilities include regulating growth, sexual development and function, metabolism and mood. The endocrine system also helps give your body the energy it needs to function properly. Endocrine glands secrete hormones into the bloodstream. Hormones are considered chemical messengers, coordinating your body by transferring information from one set of cells to another.
Your endocrine system health can be affected by hormone imbalances resulting from impaired glands. A hormone imbalance can cause problems with bodily growth, sexual development, metabolism and other bodily functions. Endocrine system diseases or conditions include diabetes, growth disorders and osteoporosis.
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Sigma Nursing answeredSee All 2 AnswersOvaries produce reproductive hormones, both estrogen and progesterone. These hormones regulate your monthly periods. Progesterone is the hormone that prepares your body for pregnancy. As these hormone levels begin to decline, your body will experience the changes of menopause.
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Jumo Health answeredPeople get multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (MEN2) from their parents. MEN2 runs in families. It's passed down from generation to generation through genes. This means that if one parent has MEN2, there's a 50 percent chance that his or her child will have it, too.
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Jumo Health answered
Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (MEN2) causes different symptoms depending on which glands are affected.
MEN2 tumors in the parathyroid glands mess up the body's calcium balance. Too many hormones released by the tumor means too much calcium in the blood. This makes people feel tired and weak. The extra calcium also makes people thirsty, so they feel like they need to pee all the time. Too much calcium also causes muscle weakness and bone pain, and over time, can damage the kidneys.
A MEN2 tumor in the adrenal glands causes the glands to produce more adrenaline than the body needs. Too much adrenaline from tumors in the adrenal glands can make people feel sweaty and anxious. People can get headaches too, and it might feel like their heart is beating really fast.
Tumors in the gut can make people constipated, or even sometimes cause diarrhea.
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RealAge answeredSee All 2 AnswersHypoparathyroidism is a rare condition in which the four tiny parathyroid glands located in your neck do not produce sufficient amounts of parathyroid hormone (PTH). This hormone works in concert with vitamin D and another hormone, calcitonin (produced by the thyroid gland) to help control levels of calcium and phosphorus in your blood and bones. If you have hypoparathyroidism, your levels of calcium are too low and your levels of phosphorus are too high.
Symptoms of hypoparathyroidism (most of which are due to too low levels of calcium) are wide-ranging and may include:- hair loss or dry hair
- brittle nails
- dry and/or scaly skin
- cataracts
- muscle cramps and/or spasms
- pain in the face, legs and feet
- painful menstruation (in women)
- seizures
- tingling in lips, fingers and toes
- poor tooth development and/or weakened tooth enamel and tooth decay (in children)
- headaches
- vomiting
- stunted growth and slow mental development (in children)
- mood swings
- hoarseness or voice changes
- wheezing or other difficulty breathing
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Jumo Health answered
To diagnose multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) doctors use a series of tests. First, the doctor will check the blood's hormone levels. The doctor might also do a urine test to check the amount of hormones in the body. The doctor will also do scans of the head, neck and stomach. The scans take detailed pictures of the inside of the body to detect any tumors in the glands.
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HealthyWomen answeredGonadotropins are hormones -- luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) -- that are given via injection to stimulate ovulation. Gonadotropins stimulate the ovaries directly. They include the following:- Human menopausal gonadotropin (HMG) is an injected medication. HMG (Repronex, Menopur) stimulates the ovaries directly, and is used for women who do not ovulate on their own.
- Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) directly stimulates the follicles and eggs to grow. FSH drug brand names include Gonal-F, Bravelle and Follistim.
- Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) stimulates the egg to mature and the follicle to release its egg.
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Under normal circumstances, the brain talks to the ovary, and the ovary communicates back to the brain in what is called a negative feedback inhibition system. In other words, the brain sends out hormones, including follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), that travel into the blood to go to the ovary and make follicles grow. As the follicles grow, they produce estrogen, which returns through the circulation to the brain to tell the brain the follicle has sufficient stimulation. This clamps or suppresses FSH in a closed-loop system. If FSH can be pushed up in the blood, it can drive follicles to grow. This can be done by either inhibiting estrogen production by blocking its synthesis through an enzyme called aromatase or blocking the effects of estrogen in the brain by giving a medicine that is an anti-estrogen. -
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Dr. Jack Merendino, MD , Endocrinology Diabetes & Metabolism, answeredSecondary hyperparathyroidism is a situation in which the parathyroid glands are producing a large amount of parathyroid hormone (PTH) to compensate for another problem. One can easily measure parathyroid hormone levels, and there is a “normal” range, but the range is really meaningless unless one also knows the blood calcium level. PTH is designed to raise the blood calcium. If the calcium level is low, the PTH should be high, so a higher-than-normal level means that the parathyroid glands are doing their job properly. This is what’s called secondary hyperparathyroidism -- the PTH levels are high, but they should be high because there is something else causing the blood calcium level to be low and the PTH goes up to try to compensate.
There are many causes of secondary hyperparathyroidism, but by far the most common is some form of vitamin D deficiency. Severe deficiency of standard 25-hydroxy-vitamin D3 levels (lets call this 25-D), which is the form of vitamin D that is usually measured in the blood, will sometimes cause secondary hyperparathyroidism. Much more commonly, the problem results from an inability of the body to convert this form of vitamin D to the more active form, 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D3 (we’ll call this 1,25-D). Conversion of 25-D to 1,25-D takes place in the kidney and many people with kidney problems -- sometimes even with what appear to be mild kidney problems -- can’t properly convert vitamin D and will develop secondary hyperparathyroidism. This condition results in a low blood calcium, a low blood phosphorus, a form of bone disease called osteomalacia, which is similar to osteoporosis but is corrected by 1,25-D, and possibly muscle weakness. This problem is surprisingly common and is frequently not recognized. Treatment with an oral form of active 1,25-D is highly effective at correcting the problem. When the 1,25-D level rises, and when the blood calcium is restored to normal, the PTH levels will also fall back into the normal range.
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When doctors measure testosterone as an important male hormone in women, it’s measured in the early-morning hour or in the early part of the menstrual cycle. This is because testosterone levels change throughout the menstrual cycle by almost 25%. Women also have the highest levels in the morning, due to changes throughout the day in circulating levels of testosterone.
Doctors can also measure free testosterone, which represents the amount of testosterone that is biologically active. This requires a specific blood test in certain laboratories that have assays developed to measure low amounts of free testosterone in a consistent and reproducible manner.