Milk from a non pregnant breast

A friend of mine, a 35-year old lady who is not pregnant recently noticed milk coming out of her breasts. Kindly explain this to me.

Alade (by SMS)

Milk production that is not associated with pregnancy and nursing, is known as galactorrhea.  In most cases, this results from the effect of the hormone prolactin.  Prolactin is a hormone that controls milk letdown, and any factor causing its elevation despite the absence of breastfeeding will lead to a natural reaction from the woman’s body.

Thus, the question is not “why did this happen?” but rather “what elevated my prolactin levels?” Among the potential reasons are various kinds of medication certain antidepressants, antipsychotics, anti hypertensive drugs, and even antacids may affect prolactin levels and trigger galactorrhea in this way. In addition to these factors, one of the most common reasons of this type is a non-cancerous tumor of the pituitary gland (prolactinoma), which does not look that bad once a person knows what prolactinoma really means. Other common reasons include problems with the thyroid gland (mostly its hypofunction) and excessive breast stimulation (for example, due to wearing uncomfortable clothing).

Diagnosis of galactorrhea is based on the determination of the reason, since elimination of the cause solves the problem. Usually, the first step includes blood tests for prolactin and Checking of thyroid hormone levels is the first step taken, followed by either adjustment of medicine dosage, prescribing thyroid treatment, or doing an image scan of the pituitary gland, depending on the outcome.

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Self-diagnosis will not be helpful since many causes will have the same symptom, hence why it is one of the symptoms that you do not need to waste time guessing about.