Prolactinoma

A prolactinoma is a disorder of the endocrine system and is the result of the pituitary gland producing too much of the hormone prolactin. This can cause a decrease in a woman's estrogen levels and a man's testosterone levels which often causes infertility. While prolactinomas are benign tumors, they, like many pathologies of the pituitary gland, they can lead to visual disturbances due to compression of the surrounding tissues.

Overproduction of prolactin can be contributed to many different factors:

-The use of medication to treat hypertension, nausea, and GERD.

-Under active thyroid

-Other tumors of the pituitary

-Breast feeding

An interesting fact about prolactinomas is that women are much more likely to develop them than men and they most often occur in people under 40.

Blood tests and vision tests can help detect prolactinomas but CT and MRI allow us to actually visualize the size, shape, and location of the tumor. MRI is usually the preferred method of diagnosis over a CT scan.

Most prolactinomas can be treated with medication but in some cases, surgery to remove the tumor may be necessary. If left untreated a prolactinoma can lead to vision loss, hypopituitarism, osteoporosis, and complications with pregnancies.

For this blog I obtained all of my information from mayoclinic.com.