Study in Endocrine 2007

“Vera”, aged 26 went to the doctors complaining of severe weight gain, swollen ankles, weakness, mild headache and high blood pressure, and was given a thorough hormone check.

She’d had a history of problems. At the age of seven she had been diagnosed with diabetes insipidus (a condition that means passing urine too often and being continuously thirsty), and when she was 12 she was unusually short for her age. She was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency but not given any replacement hormone, and still, surprisingly, managed to reach adult height. However at the age of 18 her periods had still not started. She was given sex hormones, but that made her put on weight.

After this most recent visit at the age of 26 the doctors discovered that she was still lacking in growth and sex hormones. They questioned her parents in more depth and discovered that when she was seven, before she was diagnosed with diabetes insipidus, she had fallen off a bed on to her head and been mildly concussed. The doctors decided that this minor, long ago head injury had been the cause of all her problems.