Hi julie,
Endocrinologists treat conditions of the endocrine system which involves your glands. Glands are the actual "organs" that make our hormones which in turn are the substances that control reproduction, our metabolism, our growth and development.
The pancreas is an endocrine gland, so are the ovaries, testes, adrenals, pituitary, hypothalamus, thyroid, and parathyroid.
These docs are specially trained to diagnose and treat things like diabetes,
thyroid disease, other metabolic diseases, hormone imbalances, hypertension (altho cardiologists in my opinion would be the specialists I would go to if it was simple "essential" hypertension..i.e. not caused by a glandular issue), menopause, even osteoporosis, cholesterol disease in some instances, Cushings disease, ovarian diseases etc...
They usually do blood tests first. They are exquisitely trained to understand and assess all kinds of lab tests, x-rays, CT scans, MRIs, ultrasound and biopsy results.
Hope this helps answer your question.
zuzu:wave:
