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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffProlactinoma is a condition in which a noncancerous tumor (adenoma) of the pituitary gland in your brain overproduces the hormone prolactin. The major effect of increased prolactin is a decrease in levels of sex hormones — estrogen in women and testosterone in men.
Although prolactinoma isn't life-threatening, it can impair your vision, cause infertility and produce other effects. Prolactinoma is one of several types of tumors that can develop in your pituitary gland.
Doctors can often effectively treat prolactinoma with medications to restore your prolactin level to normal. Surgery to remove the pituitary tumor also may be an option to treat prolactinoma.
- Prolactinoma. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://endocrine.niddk.nih.gov/pubs/prolact/prolact.htm. Accessed Jan. 7, 2010.
- Schelchte JA. Prolactinoma. New England Journal of Medicine. 200;349:2035.
- Mancini T, et al. Hyperprolactemia and prolactinomas. Endocrinology Metabolism Clinics of North America. 2008;37:67.
- Melmed S, et al. Disorders of the anterior pituitary and hypothalamus. In: Fauci AS, et al. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 17th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2876725. Accessed Jan. 7, 2010.
- Nippoldt TB (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Jan. 20, 2010.
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