Non Classical Congenital Hyperplasia Essay

Non-classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia or NCAH is a disorder that affects both men and women from late childhood through the rest of their lives. Compared to its sister form, classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia, it is non-life threatening. The Mayo Clinic, a service that gives people medical information and helps set up doctor appointments, defines NCAH as “a collection of genetic conditions that limit your adrenal glands' ability to make certain vital hormones.” These vital hormones include, but aren’t limited to, estrogen, testosterone, aldosterone, androgens and corticosteroids. Non-classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia is an uncommon disorder affecting only one percent of the population in a 1 to 1000 ratio, according to the National Library of Medicine. From experience, this disorder is rather frustrating, difficult to manage, and painful at times but NCAH is treatable. At the cellular level of this disorder, non-classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia is a 21-hydroxylase deficiency, a common autosomal recessive disorder due to mutations in the CYP21A2 gene, according to Dr. Selma Witchel, a pediatric endocrinologist at Children’s Hospital in …show more content…
The endocrine system is a network of glands that produce and release hormones that help control many important body functions (WebMD). The glands in the endocrine system release specific, yet different, hormones directly into the blood stream. So, as mentioned earlier, women wouldn’t exhibit male traits such as growth of facial and excessive body hair, enlarged genitals, and normal reproductive abilities. The same applies for men. At the cell level, there would be no 21-hydroxylase deficiency, allowing for normal corticosteroid production and no excessive aldosterone and androgen production. Adrenal glands would be of a normal size with no excessive cell