Prolactin adenoma is the most common pituitary tumor with a high incidence, with a female predilection, and can also occur in men. The clinical manifestations of patients are gender-related, and male patients have a more insidious onset, which can easily delay the diagnosis and treatment. Male patients tend to go to the hospital only after they develop visual impairment, and often the tumor is larger and even develops into an aggressive tumor. In contrast, when female patients show symptoms at an early stage, draw attention to them and go to the hospital for examination, the tumors are mostly smaller, less than 1 cm in diameter, which is the so-called microadenoma. Different clinical manifestations appear in early stages.
Women: menopause, lactation Men: low libido, no interest in the opposite sex As the tumor grows, both men and women will experience headache and loss of vision. Treatment is more difficult because the tumor grows in the posterior lateral aspect of the pituitary gland and the tumor keeps growing, often invading the cavernous sinus.