1. Why should you visit your Endocrinologist for your diabetes control?

As you are aware diabetes is on the rise. Endocrinologists are the specialists who deal with control of diabetes and metabolic disorders. Your endocrinologist will start by taking a detailed history of your diabetes including the presence of diabetes in your family. The endocrinologist will look into your blood glucose, HbA1c, lipid, renal function tests and evaluate for any target organ damage with other tests like biothesiometry, nerve conduction studies, funduscopy, ECG, etc. They will assess for other hormonal problems like PCOS, thyroid, adrenals and might prescribe diet, exercise, oral drugs, GLP1 analogues, insulin for sugar and metabolic control. Your endocrinologist is also an expert in Type 1 diabetes and would start children on insulin pumps.

Besides they will also guide on management of associated obesity, Polycystic ovarian syndrome, Cushings syndrome, drug induced diabetes, Gestational diabetes. Inpatient management of complications of diabetes including use of sophisticated sensor devices, insulin pumps, insulin infusion protocols and critical care glycemic control are also done by them.

Common diabetes managed by your Endocrinologist are:

• Type 1 Diabetes mellitus
• Type 2 Diabetes mellitus
• Gestational diabetes mellitus
• Secondary diabetes mellitus (steroid induced/Cushing’s/Pancreatic)

2. Why is it important to consult your Endocrinologist for your irregular periods?

Very often the cause of your irregular periods is hormonal imbalance. Your Endocrinologist is the right person to assess you clinically to know if you are suffering from hormonal imbalance like:

• Polycystic ovarian syndrome-characterized by excessive facial and body hair, obesity, hypertension, increased cholesterol, insulin resistance.
• Cushing’s syndrome-increased steroid levels in body due to various reasons.
• Hypothalamic amenorrhea- due to starvation, diet changes, stress, exercise.
• Pituitary disorders- tumors, radiation, trauma, Sheehan’s syndrome.
• Thyroid Disorders-Hypo/hyperthyroidism

The Endocrinologist evaluates clinically then does hormonal testing to diagnose your condition and the prescribes ideal hormonal treatment for the disease.

3. Why should you visit your Endocrinologist if you are an infertile couple?

Your Endocrinologist is the appropriate specialist doctor to evaluate for both male and female factor infertility. They would look for various anthropometric clinical data, sexual maturation scales, hormonal and chromosomal tests to see if you are suffering from a chromosomal disorder, hypogonadism, pituitary, thyroid, adrenal, ovarian or testicular problem. In addition, they are also experts on pubertal disorders. All these conditions can contribute to infertility.

4. Why is it important to meet an Endocrinologist if your child is not growing tall enough?

An Endocrinologist is an expert on growth disorders who looks into various aspects of growth and Puberty. They will look into a detailed family/medical/developmental history followed by painstaking measurements of height, weight, sexual maturation scales, bone age before ordering tests to exclude chronic disease, vitamin deficiency, malnutrition, coeliac disease, hormonal imbalance, growth hormone deficiency, adrenal, bone disorders which can effect height of an individual. They will exclude developmental aberrations like constitutional delay in growth and puberty & other chromosomal causes of short stature.

An Endocrinologist performs complicated hormonal stimulation and suppression tests depending on the suspected condition to reach a diagnosis.

Common causes of short stature:

• Constitutional delay in growth and puberty
• Idiopathic short stature
• Syndromic disorders
• Pituitary/thyroid/adrenal/testicular disorders

5. Why should you visit your endocrinologist if your child is precocious (Has early sexual maturation)

Early sexual maturation can be socially and emotionally a big problem for parents and it is then that an endocrinologist comes to the rescue with the right emotional assurance and performs detailed testing, bone age evaluation, sexual maturity scaling ,ultrasound evaluation of testes and ovaries to diagnose the condition and start appropriate treatment to arrest the premature sexual maturation and later allow sexual maturation to occur at an appropriate stage.

6. Why should you get evaluated by your Endocrinologist if you are having bone problems(pain, easy fractures)

The Endocrinologist is the expert specialist who evaluates the strength of your bones with Dexa scan and looks for causes associated with fragile bones. They perform a frax assessment to look for risk of fracture. They also evaluate the risk of fracture in postmenopausal women and assesses for hormonal imbalances causing increased osteoporosis. The Vitamin D deficiency state and its treatment is also done by them. In addition, they advice regarding diet, calcium, Vit D, hormonal replacement therapy.

Endocrinologist has various agents to use depending on type of osteoporosis and condition of patient which include oral, IV, subcutaneous anabolic and antiresorptive agents.