Acromegaly Symptoms

Below is a list of typical symptoms of a person with acromegaly when diagnosed by a doctor.

  • 100% Facial changes, Acral enlargement  (enlarged hands and/or feet – such as widening feet or growing feet, widening of space between lower teeth)
  • 100% Soft tissue overgrowth (examples may be:  fuller lips, puffy hands, wider nose, bags above/below eyes, increased tissue thickness above eyebrows, deeper creases and wrinkles in skin, watery eyes due to tear duct changes)
  • 90%   Enlarged sella (bone around the pituitary gland)
  • 88%    Hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating)
  • 87%    Lethargy or Fatigue
  • 73%    Weight Gain
  • 70%    Pareshesias (tingling/numbness of hands/fingers, carpal tunnel syndrome)
  • 70%    Hyperinsulinemia (Diabetes Type 2)
  • 69%    Joint Pain
  • 65%    Headache
  • 60%    Irregular or missed periods
  • 50%    Glucose Intolerance
  • 46%    Photophobia (eyes over-sensitivity to light)
  • 46%    Impotence or Decreased libido
  • 45%    Papillomas (such as skin tags, skin growths)
  • 33%    Hypertrichosis (increased hairiness)
  • 32%    Goiter (swelling around the thyroid gland – on neck)
  • 29%    Acanthosis nigricans (dark often localised skin pigmentation)
  • 24%    Hypertension (high blood pressure)
  • 20%   Visual field effects (loss or reduction of field of vision, tunnel vision)
  • 16%    Cardiomegaly (enlarged heart, such as left ventricular hypertrophy)
  • 13%    Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid)
  • 13%   Galactorrhea (discharge of breast milk)
  • 11%    Renal calcuii (kidney stones)
  • 8%      Gyneomastia (development of enlarged male breasts)
  • 4%      Hypoadrenalism (underactivity of adrenalin glands)

The percentages only give an indication of the likelihood of that symptom for a person with acromegaly. A person with acromegaly may have only a small number of symptoms, or have symptoms not found on this list. In addition, some symptoms carry their own full subset of associated conditions (such as hypothyroidism, diabetes, hypoadrenalism etc).

Source: JB Tyrrell, CB Wilson “Pituitary Syndromes” – Surgical Endocrinology: Clinical Syndromes.  Lippincott 1978. (Modified or paraphrased to simplify terminology – material in brackets not from original source)