PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Asma Deeb
AU  - Hussain AlSaffar
AU  - Rasha Tarif Hamza
AU  - Abdelhadi Habeb
TI  - Availability of Medications Used for Puberty Induction and Maintenance in Adolescents with Hypogonadism in the Arab Region
AID  - 10.1101/2020.10.27.356808
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.10.27.356808
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/10/27/2020.10.27.356808.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/10/27/2020.10.27.356808.full
AB  - Purpose Inducing puberty in hypogonadal patients enables achieving normal final adult height, healthy bone mass accrual and improves fertility potential. Reliable availability and access to medicines remain a challenge around the world, particularly in low income countries. We aim to study the availability/access to medications used for inducing and maintaining puberty in centers within the Arab region.Patients and Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a link to an online questionnaire which was emailed to paediatric endocrinologists in the Arab region. The questionnaire consisted of three questions related to availability of various forms of sex hormones.Results 99 physicians from 16 countries participated in the study. The commonest available form of estrogen was conjugated estrogen (29% of centers) followed by ethinylestradiol in 26%. Depot estradiol was available in 11centers while topical estrogen preparations of gel and patches were available in 6 and 10 centers respectively. Medroxy progesterone was available in 26% of the centers followed by noresthisterone (24%). The combined forms of oral and transdermal patches of estrogen/progestorne were available in 35 and 9% of centers. Intramuscular testosterone (Sustanon) was the most commonly available preparation of testosterone followed by the depot injection (Nebido), oral testosterone and testosterone gel and cream.Conclusions We report the first availability data of medications used for puberty induction and maintenance in paediatric hypogonadism in the Arab region. Recommended preparations for this purpose are not widely available. Creating essential list of medications used in paediatric endocrinology disorders might improve availability, access and consequently practice.