Disorders of Other Endocrine Glands
Your thyroid is one of many endocrine glands, and autoimmune inflammations
like those occurring in Hashimoto's thyroiditis may occur in these
other glands too. When the inflammation leads to scarring and tissue
damage, the glands may fail to produce enough hormones for your
needs. The symptoms that result depend on the function of those
hormones.
Your adrenal glands make cortisone and other steroid hormones,
which are released into your blood stream daily and are especially
important in your response to stressful situations. Adrenal failure
(also called Addison's disease) is an uncommon condition, occurring
in only one individual per 100,000 of the population. In most patients
with Addison's disease, glandular damage is due to an immune attack
on the tissues of the adrenal glands. If your adrenal glands fail,
you will experience fatigue, loss of energy, weakness, and darkening
of your skin, especially over your joints and inside your mouth.
This condition is treated by replacing the hormones that the adrenals
no longer make in sufficient amounts (cortisone and related steroid
hormones).
Some women suffer from oophoritis, a painless autoimmune inflammation
of their ovaries. In this condition, antibodies to ovarian tissue
may be found in the bloodstream, and inflammation and scarring have
been demonstrated in the ovarian tissues of affected individuals.
Though rare, oophoritis is a condition your physician will consider
if you experience early menopause.
Autoimmune damage to your parathyroid glands may lead to calcium
deficiency (hypocalcemia). Symptoms of this condition include mood
changes, numbness and tingling around your mouth and in your fingers
and toes, muscle cramps, and, very rarely, convulsive seizures.
Though associated with autoimmune disorders, it is actually a very
rare cause of low calcium levels among thyroid patients. The more
common cause of hypocalcemia is accidental damage to the parathyroid
glands after thyroid surgery. If you develop hypoparathyroidism,
your physician will likely prescribe calcium and Vitamin D tablets
to eliminate your symptoms by adjusting your doses of these nutrients
to bring your calcium into the normal range.
Even the pituitary, the master gland of the endocrine system, may
suffer immune damage. This rare disorder (termed hypophysitis because
"hypophysis" is another name for the pituitary) occurs
most often in women during or just after pregnancy. In the thirty
patients described in one report, slightly more than half experienced
headaches, 32% lost part of their vision (the pituitary is located
very near the optic nerves), and most experienced fatigue and weakness
as other glands like the adrenals and the thyroid which depend on
the pituitary for stimulation begin to fail. Treatment involves
replacing the hormones that are lost when pituitary function declines.
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