Pituitary tumor amenorrhea

Pituitary tumor is a relatively common oncological disease. Patients with pituitary tumors often experience symptoms such as low blood pressure, reduced immunity, and lack of energy. Moreover, patients with pituitary tumors will have a greatly reduced desire for sex, and their body functions will also gradually decline. Some women may also experience amenorrhea after suffering from a pituitary tumor. So, what is amenorrhea caused by pituitary tumor?

1. Causes and common diseases

1. Pituitary infarction

The most common one is Sheehan's syndrome. Due to postpartum hemorrhage and shock, the pituitary gland, especially the gonadotropin-secreting cells of the adenohypophysis, suffer from ischemia and necrosis, causing adenohypophysis dysfunction and a series of symptoms: amenorrhea, no lactation, loss of libido, hair loss, decline of secondary sexual characteristics, atrophy of reproductive organs, and adrenal cortex and thyroid dysfunction, chills, drowsiness, hypotension, which may be accompanied by severe and localized pain behind the eye sockets, visual field defects and decreased vision, and a reduced basal metabolic rate.

2. Pituitary tumors

Tumors can occur in various glandular cells of the adenohypophysis located in the sella turcica. The most common is adenoma that secretes PRL. The degree of amenorrhea is related to the degree of inhibition of PRL on the secretion of hypothalamic gonadotropin, which causes amenorrhea and lactation syndrome. Others include growth hormone adenomas, thyrotropin adenomas, adrenocorticotropic hormone adenomas and non-functional pituitary adenomas that occur in various glandular cells of the pituitary gland in the sella turcica. Amenorrhea and corresponding symptoms may occur because the tumor secretes hormones that inhibit the secretion of gonadotropin and/or compresses the secreting cells, thereby reducing the secretion of gonadotropin.

3. Empty sella syndrome

If the sella septum is congenitally hypoplastic, or is destroyed by a tumor or surgery, cerebrospinal fluid may flow into the pituitary fossa of the sella turcica, causing the sella turcica to expand and the pituitary gland to become compressed and smaller, which is called an empty sella turcica. When the pituitary stalk is compressed by cerebrospinal fluid and the portal circulation between the hypothalamus and pituitary is blocked, amenorrhea and hyperprolactinemia occur.

II. Treatment

1. Pituitary gonadotropin therapy

It is suitable for patients with amenorrhea caused by hypogonadotropin and those whose ovulation induction treatment with clomiphene has failed. HMG or FSH and HCG are often used in combination to induce ovulation.

2. Clomiphene

Start on the 5th day of menstruation and continue for 5 consecutive days. If it is ineffective, increase the dosage. Add HCG 5 to 10 days after stopping the medication, once a day or every other day, for a total of 3 to 5 times.