High prolactin levels?

[abm27]

Hello,

Has anybody had high levels of prolactin? I have been having unusual bleeding and my blood test came back as high level prolactin (629) - abnormal? What does this mean? Can't get a doctors appointment until tomorrow.

I'm hoping to try for a baby soon and wondering will this affect me getting pregnant?

Thanks.

It may do but you can take medication to reduce the levels. I have had high prolactin levels all my life - at their highest around 4000 (!) I’ve had an mri to see if they can find a tumour (most prolactin secreting tumours are harmless) but they couldn’t see anything but it’s probably too small to show up. They will probably want to do an mri and recheck your bloods and if your levels are still high they will probably prescribe you dostinex / cabergoline to reduce them. I was able to conceive both my dc by doing this.

Mine was the same sort of level. I was also having unusual bleeding. I had to have a repeat test after a month or so, it had come back down to normal, although the bleeding continues. I read about it online at the time and it can be caused by stress. I tried to reduce my stress levels as much as I could before my repeat test, so I put it down to that? X

Thank you for replying @Mrsworried1. Did they prescribe you anything for it to come back down? Interesting the bleeding is still continuing. Will you need a repeat test again?

Thank you@Xrays ! How scary though, the word tumour automatically puts you into panic mode!!!! Great to hear you could conceive your lovely children while this was going on. Was this on medication?

I had this and my endocrinologist Saïd it was linked to a thyroid problem being under-treated.

My eldest daughter was diagnosed with a prolactinoma (prolactin secreting tumour - not dangerous - of the pituitary gland) when she was 16 after being investigated for horrible periods. She had levels in the thousands, treatment is a low dose of cabergoline once a week. She took it for a couple of years then stopped & her prolactin levels have stayed normal without any treatment for 3 years now.

No they didn’t give me anything or even any info at the time I just had to Google it! I didn’t even know what I was being tested for.

I was under gynae at the time and they thought it was hormonal. As the bleeding continued they referred me for a hysteroscopy (camera into the womb) and biopsy which I had 4 weeks ago. I haven’t heard anything back yet and they said I have to wait for a letter so who knows!

When I was looking it up online I found there was a lot of women with raised prolactin levels, and although it sounds scary, didn’t effect them much and they were still able to conceive etc so I tried not
to worry too much! Xx

The prolactonona itself was a couple of mm big & causes no problems at all.

@abm27 yes and I have the tumour (please don't worry they are totally harmless!). They can put you on either cabergoline or bromocriptine, both of which work very quickly in bringing levels down. You aren't too far out of range, normal is about 400 I think. Mine was around 1500.

I wouldn’t use up your energy worrying between now and tomorrow OP. Worrying about something you have no agency over is the key to feeling miserable.
You aren’t that far off to be honest; high prolactin levels are in their 1000s and 1000s. Try and distract yourself, get outside if you possibly can, even for 5 mins, do some self soothing, enjoy the company of family/ colleagues and wait for your appt tomorrow. Fingers crossed all will be well. Xx

Thanks @Mrsworried1 - our situations seems similar. I'm having a hysteroscopy this afternoon!

Thank you ladies. Very helpful and seems not to be anything too major to worry about x

Let us know how you get on! Hope it goes well xx

Hiya.
when my second child was about 8 months old my breast were still leaking milk- I wasn’t breast feeding. I went to GP who did blood tests and they showed high prolactin levels. I was put on medication for approx 8 weeks then went back for a repeat blood test. Although the levels had reduced they were still high. I had another 4 weeks of the medication. Dr said if it didn’t come down I would have to have an MRI of my brain/head. Luckily after those 4 weeks the levels came down to normal. And I’ve had nothing else since. The doctor just said my levels didn’t go back down to normal after pregnancy.

I have just been diagnosed with PCOS. I was not expecting that at all!! Gynaecologist said this would be causing the slightly raised prolactin levels and to have a repeat test to see if it's rising.

@Mumma2Ro that's interesting! Pregnancy does so much to our bodies. My pcos was triggered by my previous pregnancy apparently and hormones being all over the place!

I just came to comment that i had high prolactin levels and it was as a result of PCOS, but i see you've already had your diagnosis.

We conceived DD with metformin + letrozole - hope the doctor talked to you about your options when ttc with PCOS but feel free to ask away if you have any questions.

Thanks for responding @23NameChange! It's a bit of a shock for me because I fell pregnant first time with DS1 and my periods have always been so regular (until I gave birth) - can PCOS just randomly be developed later in life or have I always had it?

I'm glad that you were able to conceive with some help :)!!!

did you have an ultrasound or other tests to diagnose PCOS? I only ask because I have lots of symptoms plus I did have one test with the same level of prolactin as you xxx

@Mrsworried1 I had an internal ultrasound which showed my right ovary had the cysts on. What are your symptoms if you don't mind me asking? X

@Xrays Hi just found this post as of now , and am in a similar situation I was just wondering was your MRI done with a contrast dye or without ? Also was it of your whole head/brain looking at everything as a whole or was it just or the the pituitary gland ?

@heatdeath Hi , just seen this post am in a similar situation was just wondering did they do a MRI on her ? Also was it with a contrast dye or without ? To confirm the prolactomina .

@watermelonsugarmum they did mine both with and without contrast (on the same day, they did the one without first, pulled me out of the scanner to give me the contrast then back in again to scan). Just of the pituitary gland so around 8 mins each. Follow up MRIs have been without contrast.