Secondary hypergonadism is most commonly due to what?

• A. Gonadotropin-secreting tumor
• B. Ovarian tumors
• C. Turner syndrome
• D. Sheehan's syndrome

Answer: (A)

Secondary hypergonadism results from the pituitary driving the gonads with excess gonadotropins (LH and FSH), leading to increased gonadal hormone production. A tumor that secretes gonadotropins provides the upstream source of this stimulation, so the gonads respond by increasing activity.

Ovarian tumors produce hormones directly from the gonads, which is a primary (gonadal) source of excess hormones rather than a pituitary-driven (secondary) process. Turner syndrome involves gonadal dysgenesis with insufficient sex steroid production, not overactivity. Sheehan’s syndrome is a pituitary infarction causing reduced pituitary hormones and hypogonadism, not hypergonadism.

So the gonadotropin-secreting tumor best explains secondary hypergonadism.