They cover a lot of ground, diagnosing and treating conditions that affect your:

• Adrenals, glands that sit on top of your kidneys and help to control things like your blood pressure, metabolism, stress response, and sex hormones
• Bone metabolism, like osteoporosis
• Cholesterol
• Hypothalamus, the part of your brain that controls body temperature, hunger, and thirst
• Pancreas, which makes insulin and other substances for digestion
• Parathyroids, small glands in your neck that control the calcium in your blood
• Pituitary, a pea-sized gland at the base of your brain that keeps your hormones balanced
• Reproductive glands (gonads): ovaries in women, testes in men
• Thyroid, a butterfly-shaped gland in your neck that controls your metabolism, energy, and brain growth and development

Your regular doctor can treat diabetes, but they might refer you to an endocrinologist when:

• You are brand new to diabetes and need to learn how to manage it.
• They don’t have a lot of experience treating diabetes.
• You take a lot of shots or use an insulin pump.
• Your diabetes has gotten tough to manage, or your treatment isn’t working.
• You have complications from diabetes.

You can always ask to go to an endocrinologist, too, even though your doctor doesn’t suggest it first. When you see one, you’ll still need to visit your primary doctor as well. They’ll work together.

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