Disorder of hair growth in hyperprolactinemia

Functional hyperprolactinemia was found in five female patients, 25-35 years old, seeking medical consultation for hair loss, together with hypertrichosis (4x), disturbances of cyclic bleeding periods (4x), secondary amenorrhea (2x), galactorrhea (2x), seborrhea (2x) and persisting acne (1x). Other hormonal parameters including testosterone levels and thyroid gland function tests were unchanged. Prolactinoma was excluded by x-ray diagrams, partly also by computer tomograms of the sella. In two patients increased telogen effluvium was found by trichogram examination with some dystrophic hairs; in one patient only dystrophic hairs were seen, whereas, in two cases, hair loss was not present at the time of our clinical examination. These observations indicate that cutaneous symptoms such as seborrhea, acne, hypertrichosis/hirsutism, alopecia(= SAHA syndrome) may evidently occur in hyperprolactinemia, representing or mimicking androgen-induced skin symptoms. In such cases, therefore, evaluation of prolactin levels together with androgen blood levels and thyroid gland function tests should be performed to exclude underlying endocrinopathy.