Successful pregnancies in patients with hyperprolactinemia--clinical and endocrinological studies on mothers and...

To study the effect of pregnancy and lactation on the clinical course of patients with pituitary adenoma and the influence of maternal hyperprolactinemia and bromocriptine treatment on fetal and neonatal development, prolactin levels were serially determined and abnormalities of newborn babies were examined. Ninety-nine patients with hyperprolactinemic amenorrhea were treated by surgery, bromocriptine therapy, and a combination of them; thus 34 patients conceived and gave birth to 43 babies. Almost all patients progressed uneventfully except for 2 cases who manifested diabetes insipidus and acute visual impairment. After the end of lactation, prolactin levels declined to lower values than before attempting pregnancy, except in 3 patients. Furthermore, those diagnosed as functional hyperprolactinemia before pregnancy were not found to have developed microadenoma. These results suggest that there is little influence on growth and activity of tumor throughout pregnancy and lactation. All of the newborns were normal and their growth up to 2 years after birth showed no special abnormalities. It was therefore concluded that maternal hyperprolactinemia or bromocriptine therapy in early pregnancy do not cause any deleterious effect on fetal and neonatal development.