What is the life expectancy of someone with Cushing’s syndrome? What Harvard Health Publishing and more experts think.

Answered by Dr. Howard E. Lewine

M.D. Chief Medical Editor, Harvard Health Publishing · 40 years of experience · USA

Cushing’s syndrome refers to an excess amount of cortisol in the body. This happens most commonly when a person needs to take a high dose of a corticosteroid like prednisone for an extended period of time. Much less commonly, a hormonal problem arising from either the pituitary gland in the brain or the adrenal gland in the abdomen leads to excess cortisol production. Because these situations can be corrected, life expectancy will likely not be directly related to the Cushing’s syndrome itself.

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Answered by Dr. Sharath Chandra

MBBS Spl in ENT, Head Neck Surgery from AIIM · 8 years of experience · India

Cushing’s syndrome is the condition where the adrenal glands in our body produce excessive cortisol hormones. Symptoms like 1) weight loss. 2)purple striae. 3)Acne, fatigue. Life expectancy in various studies indicates the mean survival would not be more than 4. 5 years in untreated Cushing’s syndrome.

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Answered by Dr. Shobha S Reddy

MBBS, Masters in Diabetology, General Practitioner & Diabetologist · 15 years of experience · India

Cushing’s syndrome is a disorder in which cortisol hormone (the stress hormone that helps the body in stress) levels in the blood are excess (maybe due to endogenous or exogenous causes). This hormone helps in maintaining blood pressure, blood sugar, reduce inflammation. This hormone is secreted by the adrenal glands in our body. Complications of Cushing’s syndrome include Hypertension, DM, infection, Bone fracture, mood swings, memory loss. If left untreated then life expectancy would be around 5 years.

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Answered by Dr. Marcelle Freire

Doctor of Medicine · 3 years of experience · Brazil

We call Cushing’s syndrome the set of signs and symptoms caused by the sustained increase in blood levels of a hormone called cortisol in the blood. This increase can be caused both by secondary causes (when some disease or condition, such as the excessive use of medications containing corticosteroids), or by primary causes, when eventually a benign tumor of a gland called the pituitary gland stimulates the indiscriminate production of cortisol by the adrenals. The prognosis of Cushing’s syndrome depends intrinsically on its cause, but most cases are potentially curable, with an excellent prognosis.

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