This seems to be becoming a more common diagnosis lately.Melissa MessinaThere’s a wikipedia page for it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_adrenal_hyperplasia_due_to_3_beta-hydroxysteroid_dehydrogenase_deficiency
And here’s pretty neat chart showing how the different adrenal hormones are related, and where the different enzymes (like 3b-hsd) are involved.
http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/basics/steroidogenesis.htmlCAH is a group of enzyme deficiencies. 21-hydroxylase is the most common, but technically the other deficiencies still count as CAH, even though they might have different effects on your overall hormone levels. For the really uncommon CAH’s, you can be lucky to find any
endos who are familiar with what the test results mean.For 3b-hsd, especially, eating licorice really helps a lot. Or so I’m
told.