Research
Hormonal
Leptin deficiency causes hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and delayed puberty, which is reversible with leptin replacement therapy.
If you have leptin deficiency, you may experience delayed puberty. Starting leptin treatment can trigger normal pubertal development, including the onset of menstruation in females and secondary sexual characteristics in males.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Generally, normal pubertal development does not occur in adults with leptin or LEPR deficiency... with biochemical evidence of hypogonadotropic hypogonadism... The administration of leptin permits progression of appropriately timed pubertal development, suggesting that leptin is a permissive factor for the development of puberty in humans
Why this rating
Based on clinical observations and hormonal assays in multiple patients.
Source
20 YEARS OF LEPTIN: Human disorders of leptin action
I Sadaf Farooqi et al. · Journal of Endocrinology · 2014
DOI 10.1530/joe-14-0480
narrative_reviewCited 253×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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