Prolactin hormone is a milk hormone and is necessary at certain levels for the development and function of female reproductive organs.
Prolactin hormone is produced from the pituitary gland of our brain. Normal prolactin levels in women are usually below 25 ng/ml. We can list the situations that lead to high levels of prolactin hormone as follows.
What happens in the body when prolactin hormone increases (in case of hyperprolactinemia)? -Menstrual irregularities (few menstrual periods, infrequent menstrual cycles, no menstrual period) -Nipple discharge (milk discharge outside of pregnancy = galactorrhea). -Failure to become pregnant (infertility) may occur due to disruption of ovulation
Diagnosis If prolactin levels are high, thyroid hormones must be checked. Additionally, a Pituitary MRI is performed.
How is high prolactin treated?
Hyperprolactinemia may respond well to drug treatment. The use of medication is the most valid and healthy method in treatment. Hormone-specific drugs that control the production and release of prolactin hormone into the blood are used, and in most patients, the problem disappears with drug treatment. However, drug therapy is not an easy treatment due to side effects. In some patients, it may cause problems such as dizziness, nausea and weakness, and low blood pressure, which decrease over time and disappear when the treatment is finished. First of all, the cause that increases the prolactin level should be tried to be found and this cause should be treated. If the complaint is of not being able to get pregnant and the person has high prolactin level, drugs that lower the prolactin level are generally used and sometimes drugs that promote ovulation are used. When the problem is milk coming from the breasts, medications that lower the prolactin level are used. When the complaint is menstrual irregularity, drugs that lower the prolactin level can be used, but in a woman who does not want a child, drugs such as birth control pills that only eliminate the symptom, that is, regulate menstrual bleeding, can also be used.
Pituitary Adenoma. Treatment
When benign tumors called pituitary adenomas are detected in a person through imaging methods, it is first investigated whether they cause compression symptoms. Adenomas are benign tumors They are tumors and are observed quite frequently, they do not tend to become cancerous and they generally grow slowly. In autopsies, pituitary adenoma can be found in 5% of women who are 70 years old and have no complaints. Although pituitary adenomas smaller than one centimeter in diameter are called micro adenomas and larger ones are called macro adenomas, what is important is not the size of the adenoma but whether it puts pressure on the surrounding tissues and its growth and hormone secretion rate. Although the degree of pressure exerted by the pituitary adenoma on the environment is usually clearly observed in the imaging method, visual field examination is also used to investigate the presence of pressure on the optic nerve. Most adenomas can be treated with prolactin-lowering drugs. Thus, operations are used very rarely. Surgery may be required, especially in adenomas that cause severe symptoms (severe headache, very narrow visual field) or tend to grow rapidly.
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