Cushing’s syndrome and pregnancy outcomes: a systematic review of published cases

Pregnancy in Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is extremely rare due to the influence of hypercortisolism on the reproductive axis. Purpose of this study is to investigate whether the etiology of CS in pregnancy determines a different impact on the fetal/newborn and maternal outcomes. We performed a systematic review of cases published in the literature from January 1952 to April 2015 including the words “Cushing AND pregnancy”. We included 168 manuscripts containing 220 patients and 263 pregnancies with active CS during pregnancy and with a history of CS but treated and cured hypercortisolism at the time of gestation. Adrenal adenoma was the main cause of active CS during pregnancy (44.1 %). Women with active CS had more gestational diabetes mellitus (36.9 vs. 2.3 %, p = 0.003), gestational hypertension (40.5 vs. 2.3 %, p