Hormones derived from the pituitary glands in the brains of cadaver donors were administered between 1963 and 1985 to infertile women and children with pituitary insufficiency. Most countries abandoned human-derived pituitary hormones in 1985 once the risk of CJD was recognized and a synthetic version was developed. New cases of iatrogenic CJD from human-derived growth hormone have sharply declined in recent years.
