Why do amenorrhea women who are not pregnant have galactorrhea?

It is well known that after giving birth, milk will naturally be discharged from both breasts to feed the baby, and most women will not have menstruation during breastfeeding. This is a natural phenomenon. However, some women, although not pregnant, will naturally have different amounts of milk when their breasts are squeezed, and often have amenorrhea. The degree of amenorrhea is also inconsistent. Some women only have infrequent menstruation, while others have no menstruation for several months or even years. This is a pathological manifestation, clinically known as amenorrhea and galactorrhea syndrome.

If blood tests are conducted on patients with amenorrhea and galactorrhea syndrome, it is found that most of them have elevated levels of a hormone called pituitary prolactin in their blood. Under normal circumstances, this hormone only increases during pregnancy and postpartum lactation to maintain the formation and secretion of milk. Therefore, this hormone is related to milk secretion.

The most common causes of increased pituitary prolactin are brain pituitary adenoma and primary hypothyroidism. Oral contraceptives may sometimes cause lactation and amenorrhea, and some other drugs, such as long-term use of reserpine or chlorpromazine, may also cause lactation and amenorrhea.

Therefore, women with amenorrhea and galactorrhea syndrome should go to the hospital for a detailed examination to find out the cause of the disease as much as possible, so as to treat the cause. For women with lactation and amenorrhea who have not found an obvious cause after examination, bromocriptine can effectively inhibit hyperprolactinemia, whether it is functional or caused by tumor-induced increased pituitary prolactin levels, and can also restore normal ovulatory menstruation. The disadvantage is that recurrence occurs after stopping the drug, but the drug is still effective when used again, indicating that this treatment is only a symptomatic treatment. In addition, once pregnancy is confirmed, the drug should be stopped immediately, but some people have found that even in early pregnancy, even those who take this drug do not see fetal malformations.