History of Prolactin Disorders

Abstract

‘If a woman who is neither pregnant nor has given birth, produce milk, her menstruation has stopped’. Hippocrates – Aphorisms, section V, No. 39 The historical aspects of the discovery of prolactin and prolactinoma are fascinating. For many years, prolactin was not thought to be different in man to growth hormone, but specific bioassays were developed in around 1970 which conclusively showed that prolactin was separate from growth hormone. Harris in Oxford had previously shown that the hypothalamus controlled the pituitary but that prolactin control was different to the other anterior pituitary hormones in being predominantly inhibitory. We know that prolactin has many actions both in women and in man.