The emphasis of this website is on post-traumatic hypopituitarism, that is, hypopituitarism caused by head injury, but there are many other causes too.
Here are some of them:
- Brain surgery
- Radiation treatment to the head or neck
- Lack of blood flow to the brain or pituitary gland (stroke) or bleeding (hemorrhage) into the brain or pituitary gland
- Certain medications, such as narcotics, high-dose corticosteroids such as prednisone, or certain cancer drugs called checkpoint inhibitors
- Inflammation of the pituitary gland caused by an abnormal immune system response (hypophysitis)
- Pituitary tumours, or tumours/diseases of the hypothalamus, a part of the brain above the pituitary. The hypothalamus produces hormones that directly affect the activity of the pituitary gland.
- Infections of the brain, such as meningitis, or infections that can spread to the brain, such as tuberculosis or syphilis
- Infiltrative diseases, which affect multiple parts of the body, including sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease occurring in various organs; Langerhans cell histiocytosis, in which abnormal cells cause scarring in numerous parts of the body; and hemochromatosis, which causes excess iron deposits in the liver and other tissues
- Severe loss of blood during childbirth, which may cause damage to the front part of the pituitary gland (Sheehan's syndrome or postpartum pituitary necrosis.
- An inherited genetic mutation, which affects the pituitary gland’s ability to produce one or more of its hormones. This can start at birth or in early childhood.
- Hematopoietic stem cell transplants
In some cases, the cause of hypopituitarism is unknown.
Source: The Mayo Clinic website