Yes, It Is Possible to Injure Your Pituitary Gland in a Car Accident
Did you hear the one about the guy who broke his leg playing checkers? It makes for amusing anecdotes when the cause of your injuries is not what people would expect, but it is easier to have a sense of humor about it after your injuries have healed. People think of the pituitary gland as the body part that causes raging hormones in adolescents, not as a body part that can suffer traumatic injuries; after all, it is about as far inside your head as a body part can be. While pituitary hormones are a driving force in puberty, there is much more to the pituitary gland than you learn in family life education in fourth grade. Many annoying symptoms for which it is difficult to attribute a specific cause are due to deficiencies in pituitary hormones. Finding the cause of the hormone deficiency is equally challenging. Some cases of pituitary hormone deficiency, although not the majority of them by any means, are due to a traumatic injury to the pituitary gland, secondary to a head injury. If you are suffering from a hormone disorder related to a head injury arising from a car accident, contact a Jacksonville car accident lawyer.
How Concussions Can Lead to Hormonal Deficiencies
No matter what you have heard about concussions, they are worse than they sound. Even if you get diagnosed before the symptoms get really bad, you are still in for weeks or months of discomfort and disruption to your usual routine. Depending on what part of your head sustained the traumatic injury, the injury might also have affected your pituitary gland. Disruption of pituitary hormones is common in the early stages after a concussion, but hormone production usually returns to normal within a few weeks. If they do not, then you have developed hypopituitarism, in which the pituitary gland consistently secretes lower than normal levels of hormones.
As pituitary hormones regulate many aspects of your health, from hunger to sleep, hypopituitarism can cause all kinds of unpleasant symptoms. It might cause you to gain weight, to urinate more than normal, or to feel cold even in the Florida sun. Deficient levels of sex hormones produced by the pituitary gland can lead to decreased body hair and infertility in both sexes, and menstrual cycle changes in women under 50.
Treatment for hypopituitarism involves replacing the hormones that your body has stopped producing on its own. Some hormones can be taken orally as pills, while others are available only as injections. If your hypopituitarism is the result of a head injury that you sustained in a car accident, then it counts as an accident-related medical expense. In other words, you may be able to get compensation for it through the at fault party’s insurance.
Contact Douglas & Douglas About Car Accident Cases
A North Florida personal injury lawyer can help you if you got injured in a car accident, and your accident-related concussion is causing hormonal problems. Contact Douglas & Douglas in Jacksonville, Florida for a free consultation.
Source:
headway.org.uk/about-brain-injury/individuals/effects-of-brain-injury/hormonal-imbalances/
