Clinical Effects of Pituitary Tumours in Acromegaly (2)
Hyperprolactinaemia is common; females may present with amenorrhoea and galactorrhoea or infertility and males with low libido and impotence. Hyperprolactinaemia is more commonly due to the coexistent production of prolactin by the tumour than to pituitary stalk compression by it. Stalk compression can lead to functional disconnection of the normal pituitary prolactin-secreting cells from the dopaminergic prolactin-inhibiting influence of the hypothalamus, this is then called a ΓÇÿpseudoprolactinomaΓÇÖ.
