It is important to understand the symptoms of pituitary tumors to detect and treat the disease in its early stages. Today we will explain from which symptoms pituitary tumors can be detected.
Common signs of pituitary tumors 1: decreased libido, menstrual disorders, infertility Prolactin adenoma is the most common pituitary adenoma that can affect male sexual function, such as decreased libido. More commonly, it causes menstrual disorders, reduced, scanty or stopped menstruation, and even infertility in women. Experts say that if a patient has the above symptoms and treatment in gynecology or male medicine does not work, he or she should also go to neurosurgery for examination to rule out the possibility of pituitary tumor.
Common signs of pituitary tumor two: big feet, big fingers, big lips Gigantism and acromegaly, which are common symptoms of growth hormone adenoma, are evident in some patients as big nose, thick lips, big hands and big feet. Director Jia Dong said, “In the clinic, we will encounter some patients with the onset of the disease, the size of shoes will continue to increase, adults may originally wear size 40 shoes, may wear to 45 yards, the growth rate is very fast. In addition, the face shape of such patients is also very special, looking like a close-up picture with protruding cheek arches, as well as a large nose and thick lips.”
Growth hormone adenoma mainly affects the limbs and face. If these obvious symptoms appear, Prof. Guo Ying advises people to consider whether they have pituitary tumor.
Common Signs of Pituitary Tumor 3: Vision Loss As pituitary tumors continue to grow, they can have a compressive effect on important surrounding tissues, most commonly the optic nerve, which can cause changes in vision and visual field. Usually, short-term vision loss is a high indication of a pituitary tumor. Director Jia Dong said, “In the clinic, we have had this kind of patient, the patient found vision loss, kept seeing the ophthalmology department, saw it for a long time and didn’t find out what the problem was, and only after the pressure was very strong at the back, finally the pituitary tumor was considered, and after the examination was done it was confirmed to be a pituitary tumor.”
Common Signs of Pituitary Tumor #4: Hyperthyroidism Hyperthyroidism (hyperthyroidism) often manifests as excessive sweating, excessive eating, weight loss, weakness, rapid heart rate, agitation, protruding eyes and an enlarged thyroid gland. Most hyperthyroidism is due to a lesion in the thyroid gland itself. However, some of them are caused by pituitary adenomas that overproduce thyrotropin, thus promoting thyroid body proliferation and secretion of thyroxine to cause hyperthyroidism. Director Jia Dong suggests that patients who have symptoms of hyperthyroidism may first check for problems with the thyroid gland itself. However, it should also be considered that there will be pituitary problems so as not to lead to misdiagnosis.
If there are four common signs above, we need to be alert to pituitary tumor and can go to the hospital for examination: visual field examination, pituitary endocrine examination, imaging examination (such as CT, MRI).