pituitary and weight loss

Hi, is there anyone out there with any pituitary deficit? Are you being treated for it? How did you do with weight loss after surgery?

My surgery is scheduled for Monday, 5/13/19. I have growth hormone deficiency for which I take a shot every day. I wonder how that will affect my weight loss after WLS.

Thanks for your time.

Hi Hobbspiffy,

I had not had this issue but.... If your surgery is in a few days this is something you should have discussed with your surgeon. Did you tell him/her about your deficiency and what shots you are taking? If so, they should be able to tell you what and how this would have any affect on your surgery and or your weight loss long term. Be sure and talk to you surgeon to be safe. Let us know what they say and good luck on your upcoming surgery.

Regards,

Kathy

Thank you for your reply. Of course my surgeon knows about it. I just am interested in how others may have experienced this issue, if anyone has.

Have a great day.

I think it would be tough to say without knowing what sort of pituitary deficiency you have and what the effects are. I don't know for sure, but I would think that having a pituitary deficiency would make losing weight tougher and getting treated would bring things back into balance and make losing weight a bit easier? But without knowing more, that's just a guess.

Good luck with you surgery!

Jen

Thanks for your reply.

Is the HGH the only hormone you are getting? All others are good?

Because you are getting injections, that shouldn't be affected.

I have a pittuatary issues, but I was diagnosed a few years after my WLS. Mine at this point is not a complete failure. Plus I am older so my Endo and I, we chose to only supplement some hormones, not all of them. I am on cortisone, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. At this point my thyroid are still active most of the time, and we don't want to put me on thyroid hormons, because that could shut that down. As long as it is working and my T4 is acceptable, we like to keep it that way.

Major thing was the cortisone. It took time and a great Endo to suspect adrenal issues based on my symptoms. We were right. Once I was put on supplemental HC I was afraid I would gain weight, but after an initial weight gain, I had no problem losing a few pounds I wanted no lose.

Without my HC, I couldn't exercise, because my blood sugar would crash with almost any activity. I had to eat often, and eat carbs, because without cortisone to control insuIin and BS, I used to have severe Hypoglycemia or reactive hypoglycemia (RH). Add postural hypotension, plus being tired no matter how much sleep I got. And my sleep was not great either.

Adding HC (hydrocortisone) really brought me back my life. I had to learn how much to take and how to space the HC during the day.

Thanks for your reply. I'm getting HGH and thyroid. I had been getting estrogen and progesterone but they stopped them last year when I got cancer. It's encouraging to know that you lost weight even with the hormone issues. My surgeon is encouraging too. Wish me luck, my surgery is tomorrow. Thanks again, and have a great day.

Before I got diagnosed with the Secondary Adrenal Insufficiency, due to low functional pittuatary, I was slowly gaining weight.

With Iow adrensls, low cortisone, I could not exercise without my BS crashing. I couldn't limit food, specially carbs because I would get low BS, Hypoglycemia. I had to eat every 2-3 hours and I had to eat some carbs to keep my BS from bottoming out.

Plus low cortisone meant low appetite but I still had to eat. I couldn't sleep well, but I also was tired almost always.

I.e I fall adleea asleep inside MRI machine when they were doing MRI of my brain- pittuatary. I would sit down, and fell asleep.

After I was put on cortisone, I started to "wake up". My other hormones were also low, like HGH and thyroid, but my doc hoped that my body was compensating, and once I can stabilize my cortisone, some other hormones can recover. It took time, but they recovered some. My HGH is ok, not very high, but at my age, is just ok. My thyroid is OK. My pittuatary often don't make TSH, but sometimes it does. My T4 od OK. Do far.

I am post menopausal, and I was put on estrogen, progesterone and testosterone even before I got diagnosed with low pittuatary functions. I entered into a menopause very rapidly. I had a GB removal surgery and after the surgery, things were never the same. I think something happens during the surgery, that caused damage to my pittuatary.

I had a very hard time to recover from surgery, and almost imidiately after surgery I started having a severe menopausal symptoms. They were do bad, I had to go on hormonal replacement therapy. Now I understand why.

But - once I was put on the cortisone, I started doing much better. Initially, as I started cortisone, I gained a few pounds, but withing a few months I lost that and lost s few more of regain.

As long as my hormones are balanced, I am doing good. I need to make sure to take my cortisone, updose when I want to exercise, updose when I am really stressed, or sick.

If I take too much, I can get very hungry. But even when hungry, I am in control what I eat and when. Hunger is no longer an emergency when I take enough cortisone.

I actually have to eat more to maintain. Because cortisone also gives me energy, I tend to do more and I think I have a higher metabolism than when I had not enough.

Once my hormones are balanced, I basically get even start with people who have normal system, if we are talking about weigh loss.

I still can get a severe RH (Reactive Hypoglycemia) when I eat too much sugar. There is no escape from that for me.

You may need to work closely with your endocrinologist woke you would be losing weight to monitor and balance your hormones. That maybe critical. You may need to keep journal to note how are you changing, so you can recognize symptoms of not enough or too much of hormones you are on.

That was a lot of info.

PS - when I was diagnosed with Adrenal Insufficiency I found an online forum for that, and it helped me a lot to find balance in my hormones. Understanding what is happening and how do I need to dose it.

I had Cushings Disease and had most of my pituitary gland removed. I take many replacement medications including growth hormone injections and thyroid medications. I had gastric bypass in May 2017 and have lost all my excess weight. Started at 242 pounds and now 110 pounds. I feel great and am able to exercise. Completed half marathons 18 months after bypass surgery

Thank you for your kind response, and have a great day.