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Hyperprolactinemia CausesAka: Galactorrhea causes

See Also
1. Hyperprolactinemia
2. Galactorrhea
Causes: Physiologic
1. Breast stimulation
2. Sexual Intercourse
3. Eating or dehydration
4. Exercise
5. Sleep
6. Stress
7. Pregnancy or Puerperium
  1. Resolves within 6 months postpartum
8. Neonatal Galactorrhea (Witch's Milk)
  1. Resolves in first 2 months of life
Causes: Medications
1. See Medication Causes of Hyperprolactinemia
Causes: Non-Neoplastic
1. Afferent Neural Stimulation
  1. Breast
    1. Chronic Breast abscess
    2. Excessive nipple or breast manipulation
      1. Irritating clothes
      2. Ill-fitting brassieres
  2. Chest Wall and Skin
    1. Herpes Zoster
    2. Mastectomy or other breast surgery
    3. Thoracotomy
  3. Spinal Cord tumor, injury or surgery
    1. Syringomyelia
    2. Tabes dorsalis
2. Endocrine
  1. Adrenal adenoma or tumor
  2. Hypothyroidism
  3. Ovarian tumor
  4. Polycystic Ovary Disease
3. Prolactin Inhibiting Factor (PIF) synthesis Inhibition
  1. Hypothalamic cause
  2. Cerebrovascular Accident (Infarction)
  3. Infiltrative Disease
    1. Encephalitis or post-Encephalitis
    2. Hemochromatosis
    3. Sarcoidosis
    4. Tuberculosis
    5. Schistosomiasis
    6. Schuller-Christian Disease
  4. Irradiation
  5. Pseudocyesis
  6. Parkinson's Disease
4. Prolactin Inhibiting Factor (PIF) transport interrupted
  1. Pituitary stalk section interrupted
  2. Pituitary Stalk compression
    1. Cerebral Aneurysm
    2. Cerebral cyst
    3. Empty sella syndrome
    4. Pseudotumor Cerebri
5. Other non-neoplastic causes
  1. Acute Intermittent porphyria
  2. Hepatic Cirrhosis
  3. Chronic Renal Failure
  4. Multiple Sclerosis
Causes: Neoplastic
1. Prolactin Inhibiting Factor (PIF) synthesis inhibition
  1. Hypothalamic Tumors
    1. Primary: Craniopharyngioma
    2. Metastases
  2. Pineal Tumors (Primary or metastatic)
2. Prolactin Inhibiting Factor (PIF) transport interrupted
  1. Pituitary stalk compression
    1. Hypothalamic tumor
    2. Pituitary tumor
3. Prolactin-secreting tumors
  1. Pituitary tumors
    1. Acromegaly
    2. Cushing's Disease
    3. Nelson Disease
    4. Prolactin-secreting pituitary tumor
  2. Ectopic tumor production
    1. Breast Cancer
    2. Bronchogenic carcinoma
    3. Hypernephroma
4. Other tumors
  1. Hydatidiform Mole
References
1. Stenchever (2001) Comprehensive Gynecology, p. 1125-42
2. Serri (2003) CMAJ 169:575

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This page was written by Scott Moses, MD. This page was last revised before 5/10/08, prior to consistent tracking of revision date. This page was last published on 6/1/2008. Please send comments and questions to the editor. Contact information may be found on the page About the Family Practice Notebook. These pages are best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0.