What is hyperprolactinemia

What is hyperprolactinemia? I believe many people are unfamiliar with this disease. In fact, it is a common pituitary disease. From the perspective of pathological changes, it can be divided into tumor hyperprolactinemia, postpartum hyperprolactinemia, idiopathic hyperprolactinemia, and iatrogenic hyperprolactinemia. The main clinical characteristics are amenorrhea, infertility, and galactorrhea.

In the past, women with amenorrhea and galactorrhea were diagnosed with amenorrhea-galactorrhea syndrome. It was not until 1970 that Frantz et al. proved the presence of prolactin-active substances in human blood. In 1971, Hwang et al. developed a radioimmunoassay method for PRL. It is now known that this syndrome is actually caused by hyperprolactinemia.

Hyperprolactinemia (HP) is an endocrine disease caused by hypothalamic-pituitary disorders, the most common cause of which is excessive secretion of prolactin (PRL) by pituitary prolactinoma. Since elevated serum PRL causes ovarian dysfunction in women, resulting in amenorrhea, galactorrhea and infertility, HP is now a difficult disease that gynecologists pay attention to.

Galactorrhea is a typical HPRL manifestation of amenorrhea-galactorrhea syndrome, which is 20.84% ​​in non-tumor type, 70.58% in tumor type, and 63-83.55% in simple galactorrhea. Galactorrhea is overt or occurs when the breast is squeezed, and is a non-bloody milky white or transparent liquid. The breasts are mostly normal, or with lobular hyperplasia or macromastia. Headache, dizziness and visual impairment When the pituitary adenoma increases significantly, headache, dizziness, vomiting, visual field defects and oculomotor nerve paralysis may occur due to cerebrospinal fluid reflux obstruction and optic nerve compression.

The most prominent manifestation of hyperprolactinemia is hypogonadism, which is caused by elevated PRL levels and is called hyperprolactinemic hypogonadism. Female patients may experience decreased libido and loss of sexual desire, which will be alleviated after treatment as PRL levels decrease. The harm it brings is very serious, so it must be taken seriously and actively treated.