The classic symptoms of Cushing’s disease are a rounded face (often called a “moon face”) and fatty deposits that cause upper body obesity or a hump between the shoulders. Other symptoms and consequences may include:
- Weight gain, especially in the upper body
- Disruptions in the menstrual cycle
- Excess body hair, acne
- Thinning skin, frequent bruising
- Headache or backache
- Fatigue and muscle weakness
- Mood changes
- High blood pressure
- Weakened bones that can lead to easy fractures
- Frequent infections
- Blood clots
- Depression/irritability/psychosis
- Elevated sugars
- Elevated blood pressure
Many of these symptoms are highly suggestive of a hormonal disorder, but patients don’t always report all their symptoms — for example, a woman may talk to her gynecologist about menstrual changes without mentioning her headaches or bruising. When taken together, however, these symptoms point strongly in the direction of a hormone problem and the individual should be referred for blood tests to look at hormone levels. (See Diagnosing and Treating Cushing’s Disease.)
Patients diagnosed with a pituitary tumor should be referred to a major medical center with an expert team of pituitary specialists. At the Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center, patients will be evaluated by a multi-disciplinary team that includes neurosurgeons, otolaryngologists, endocrinologists, and neuroradiologists. If surgery is recommended, it will be performed by a neurosurgeon with advanced skills in minimally invasive procedures to remove pituitary tumors. (See Surgery for a Pituitary Tumor.)
Our Care Team
- Vice Chair for Clinical Research
- David and Ursel Barnes Professor in Minimally Invasive Surgery
- Professor of Neurosurgery, Neurology, and Otolaryngology
- Director, Center for Epilepsy and Pituitary Surgery
- Co-Director, Surgical Neuro-oncology
- Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery
- Leon Levy Research Fellow
- Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute
- Assistant Professor of Neuroendocrinology in Neurological Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine
- Director, Neurosurgical Radiosurgery
- Professor of Clinical Neurological Surgery
- Robert G. Schwager, MD ’67 Education Scholar, Cornell University
- Chief of Neurological Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Queens
- Co-director, Weill Cornell Medicine CSF Leak Program
- Chief of Neurological Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist
- Professor, Neurological Surgery
- Director, Brain Metastases Program
- Co-director, William Rhodes and Louise Tilzer-Rhodes Center for Glioblastoma
Reviewed by: Georgiana Dobri, M.D.
Last reviewed/last updated: September 2023