Hormone for lactation; rises with stress, medicines, and pituitary disorders.
What it is
Prolactin in mU/L. Mild rises are common; marked elevation with symptoms needs review. Repeat fasting morning samples are sometimes advised.
Prolactin from the anterior pituitary enables lactation and has broader reproductive effects. Stress, sleep, venepuncture anxiety, and many medicines raise it. Reported in mU/L.
Why it matters
Causes include stress, sleep disturbance, antipsychotics and other drugs, hypothyroidism, and prolactinoma. Galactorrhoea, menstrual change, or erectile symptoms deserve clinical assessment, not internet protocols.
This guide is educational only and cannot diagnose you. Discuss results, especially anything outside your laboratory’s reference interval, or that does not match how you feel, with a GP or other appropriately qualified clinician.
How it affects the body
Prolactin inhibits GnRH in excess, which can suppress reproductive hormones: linking high prolactin to cycle or libido changes.
Excess prolactin suppresses GnRH, lowering LH/FSH and sex steroids: linking high prolactin to menstrual disturbance, infertility, or low libido. True prolactinomas need endocrine imaging pathways.
For athletes
Pre-race anxiety can nudge prolactin. Persistent elevation with reproductive symptoms in athletes warrants endocrine review and energy-availability assessment.
Pre-draw nerves can nudge prolactin. Repeat fasting morning samples if mildly raised. Persistent elevation with reproductive symptoms in athletes deserves endocrine review and energy-availability questions.
For fertility planning when you want AMH with key reproductive and thyroid markers in one private panel. AMH does not predict natural conception chances.
