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Secondary Hypogonadism

Meaning

Secondary Hypogonadism is a clinical condition characterized by deficient function of the gonads, testes in males or ovaries in females, resulting from a failure in the pituitary gland or the hypothalamus to produce adequate levels of the gonadotropin hormones, Luteinizing Hormone (LH) and Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH). This represents a central, rather than peripheral, failure in the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Gonadal (HPG) axis. The condition leads to low circulating levels of sex steroids, such as testosterone or estrogen, despite the gonads themselves being structurally normal. Diagnosis requires the simultaneous finding of low sex steroids and inappropriately low or normal gonadotropins.