1. Hormone Replacement Therapy
If you or your child has hypogonadism, restoring normal hormone levels is usually done through hormone replacement therapy. For males, testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) can be administered in several different ways. Testosterone injections are done every 2 weeks. You can administer these yourself or have a doctor or a family member do it for you. Alternatively, you can apply a patch with testosterone on it to your skin overnight. These can cause skin irritations, however. Testosterone gel rubbed into your skin is another application option, but you must wait for it to dry before making skin-to-skin contact with others. Buccal cavity testosterone is absorbed through the gums, but it can cause gum irritation and other side effects. Finally, testosterone can be taken orally, but only for the short term. Long-term use can cause liver and heart problems.
For females, estrogen therapy can be delivered via patch or pill. It is sometimes combined with progesterone to lower your risk of endometrial cancer. When taken later in life, estrogen therapy increases your risk of breast cancer and heart disease, however. You may also be given testosterone to enhance sex drive.
2. Infertility Treatments
Infertility is a problem for both men and women with hypogonadism. If your child gets treatment for hypogonadism in puberty, that will not affect his fertility later in life. For help with fertility, those with hypogonadism should contact a reproductive endocrinologist or fertility specialist when they are ready to conceive.
If you have hypgonadism and can't get pregnant, there is hope. In some cases, ovulation and sperm production can be stimulated with hormone injections and pills. Unfortunately, however, there is no known effective fertility treatment for those with primary hypogonadism, which is caused by gonadal failure. Only secondary hypogonadism, which is caused by problems with the pituitary gland or hypothalamus gland, responds to infertility treatments.
3. Surgical Removal of Non-Functioning Gonadal Tissue
In some cases, gonadal tissue that is not functional needs to be removed. That tissue sometimes poses a risk of developing cancer. Since it has no meaningful function, it's safer to simply remove it. This is done surgically. Females whose chromosome structure contains a Y chromosome, such as those with Turner's syndrome, are the most likely candidates for this type of surgery. If gonadal tissue is removed from males, a prosthesis can be inserted into the scrotum to simulate a testicle.
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