Pituitary gland help control the following body processes: Some of the diseases involving the pituitary gland are: All of the functions of the pituitary gland can be adversely affected by an over- or under-production of associated hormones. The pituitary gland is important for mediating the stress response, via the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA axis) Critically, pituitary gland growth during adolescence can be altered by early life stress such as childhood maltreatment or maternal dysphoric behavior. It has been demonstrated that, after controlling for age, sex, and BMI, larger quantities of DHEA and DHEA-S tended to be linked to larger pituitary volume. Additionally, a
Pituitary adenoma shown there are to date scant studies – of poor quality – to either support or refute this assumption. Adenomas which exceed in size are defined as "macroadenomas", with those smaller than 10 mm referred to as "microadenomas". Most pituitary adenomas are microadenomas, and have an estimated prevalence of 16.7% (14.4% in autopsy studies and 22.5% in radiologic studies). A majority of pituitary microadenomas often remain undiagnosed and those that are diagnosed are often found as an "incidental finding", and are referred to as "incidentalomas". Pituitary macroadenomas are the most common cause of hypopituitarism, and in the majority of cases