What Are the Potential Hazards of Using Hormonal Medications?

Hormone medications are a crucial class of drugs that play an irreplaceable role in the treatment of various diseases. However, they must be used with caution as improper use can have significant impacts on the body. Normal use is generally safe, but abuse or long-term use can easily lead to various hazards. Let's take a closer look at the potential hazards of using hormone medications.

1. Potential Hazards of Hormone Medications:

• Easy to induce tumors, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, ovarian cancer, thyroid cancer, para-testicular cyst, vaginal cancer, and seminoma.
• Affect the nervous system, leading to symptoms such as tachycardia, palpitations, hand tremors, dizziness, and headache, which can be especially dangerous for patients with hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, hyperthyroidism, and prostatic hypertrophy.
• Irregular use of hormone medications (such as arbitrary dosage adjustments or discontinuation) and long-term, high-dose use of corticosteroids like prednisone can exacerbate sexual dysfunction. Almost all immunosuppressive agents can cause testicular atrophy and ovarian damage.
• The side effects of hormone medications taken during pregnancy can affect the development of the fetus.
• Long-term, extensive topical use of hormones can be absorbed into the bloodstream, leading to conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, aseptic bone necrosis, obesity, hirsutism, acne, sodium retention, edema, hypokalemia, menstrual disorders, gastric and duodenal ulcers, and other issues.
• Long-term or short-term high-dose injection or oral administration of hormones can cause damage to the kidneys, such as increasing proteinuria in glomerular diseases, aggravating glomerular sclerosis, predisposing to renal calcification or kidney stones, inducing or aggravating renal infectious diseases, and causing hypokalemic nephropathy and polycystic kidney disease.
• Long-term use of supraphysiological doses can lead to central obesity, moon face, purple striae, skin thinning, muscle weakness, muscle atrophy, hypokalemia, edema, nausea, vomiting, hypertension, diabetes, acne, hirsutism, infection, pancreatitis, poor wound healing, osteoporosis, induction or exacerbation of peptic ulcer, growth inhibition in children, and induction of psychiatric symptoms.
• Long-term, extensive use in the eyes can cause elevated blood pressure, leading to optic nerve damage, visual field defects, posterior capsular cataract, secondary fungal or viral infections.

2. Indications for Hormone Medications:

• Diffuse connective tissue diseases: Hormone medications have proven effective in diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, mixed connective tissue disease, polymyositis/dermatomyositis, and vasculitis, extending patient lifespan and improving quality of life.
• Rheumatoid arthritis: Mainly used in patients with vasculitis, serositis, and organ damage, as well as those who cannot tolerate non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. It can also be effective in treating Felty's syndrome, elderly rheumatoid arthritis, remitting seronegative symmetric synovitis with pitting edema syndrome, and adult-onset Still's disease.
• Immunologically related allergic diseases.
• Other arthritis with significant organ damage: such as Reiter's syndrome with iritis and heart damage, rheumatic arthritis with heart damage, etc.
• Nephritis, chondritis, ophthalmia, serositis, peripheral and central neuropathy related to immunological factors.
• Decreased blood cell counts.
• Local application in osteoarthritis.