What causes hyperparathyroidism?
In most cases doctors don’t know the cause. The vast majority of cases occur in people with no family history of the disorder. Only about 5 percent of cases can be linked to an inherited problem. Familial multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 is a rare, inherited syndrome that affects the parathyroids as well as the pancreas and the pituitary gland. Another rare genetic disorder, familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia, is sometimes confused with typical hyperparathyroidism. Each accounts for about 2 percent of primary hyperparathyroidism cases. How common is hyperparathyroidism? In the United States, about 100,000 people develop the disorder each year. Women outnumber men two to one, and risk increases with age. In women 60 years and older, two out of 1,000 will develop hyperparathyroidism each year. What are the symptoms of hyperparathyroidism? A person with hyperparathyroidism may have severe symptoms, subtle ones, or none at all. Increasingly, routine blood tests that screen for a wide
