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Endocrinology

Endocrinology is the field of medicine concerned with disorders of the glands and hormonal systems.

Endocrinology

Endocrine glands produce and secrete hormones into the blood or lymph systems.

These glands include:

thyroid
parathyroid
hypothalamus
pituitary
adrenal
islets of Langerhans in the pancreas
gonads (testes and ovaries).

These hormones may affect one organ or tissue or the entire body. There are many disorders that can result when too few hormones are secreted (hyposecretion) or too many are secreted (hypersecretion).

Disorders that may result when a particular gland does not produce the right amount of hormones include the following.

Thyroid: hypothyroidism, myxoedema, goitre, thyrotoxicosis
Parathyroid: high calcium, tetany, renal calculi, excessive loss of minerals from bone, hypercalcaemia
Adrenal: Addison's disease, phaeochromocytoma
Pituitary: non-functioning tumour, diabetes insipidus, acromegaly, gigantism, Cushing's syndrome, dwarfism
Testes and ovaries: lack of sex development, hypogonadism
Pancreas: diabetes, hypoglycaemia

These conditions may be treated by medicine or surgery. Oxford University Hospitals has internationally recognised experts in the treatment of these disorders.

For more information please visit:

What is endocrinology? - Society for Endocrinology

OCDEM

OCDEM is a unique clinical, academic and research partnership that is home to the OUH Endocrinology Department and is a renowned tertiary referral service.

OCDEM's busy medical department provides a wide range of endocrine clinics.

Clinics

Thyroid
Radioiodine for Benign Thyroid Disease
Thyroid Cancer clinics (joint with Oncology)
Thyroid Eye Disease MDT clinics (joint with Ophthalmology and Rheumatology)
Joint Pituitary Clinics (joint with Neurosurgery)
Endocrine Oncology and Neuroendocrine Tumour (NET) Service (OCDEM is a ENETs Centre of Excellence)
Reproductive Clinic
Transition Endocrinology (joint with Paediatrics)
Late Effects Clinic (joint with Oncology)
Turners Clinic
Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) Clinic
Endocrine Effects of Immunotherapies (joint with Oncology)
General Endocrinology Clinic (where we will see a range of common acute and chronic endocrinology conditions)

For more information please visit:

Appointments

We run a range of appointment types, in person and telephone consultations.

Please only come to the department if you are scheduled to have an in person consultation.

If you have any concerns or would like to speak to a member of the team about your appointment, please contact us.

Tel: 01865 857300

For urgent endocrinology advice out of hours, please contact the on-call Endocrinology team via OUH Switchboard.

Tel: 0300 304 7777

Getting your bloods done

Currently blood-taking services within OCDEM are limited. When available, they are often reserved for special tests that cannot be facilitated elsewhere.

This means we may ask you to get your bloods done at one of our Phlebotomy hubs.

On the Churchill Hospital site there is a drop-in Phlebotomy service which patients can access:

Phlebotomy (blood tests)

Detail from Churchill Hospital site map