I was 24 when I stopped getting my period. I had been irregular for about a year before that, which I attributed to stress from graduate school. When it stopped entirely, my gynecologist ran bloodwork and my prolactin came back at 340 ng/mL. She ordered an MRI immediately.
They found a 7mm microadenoma on my pituitary. I remember sitting in the endocrinologist's office hearing the word "tumor" and feeling like the world was ending. She explained that prolactinomas are almost always benign and almost always treatable with medication. She started me on cabergoline 0.25mg twice weekly.
Looking back, the symptoms had been building for years. The missed periods were the obvious one, but there was also: constant fatigue that no amount of sleep fixed, a complete absence of libido (I thought I might be asexual, genuinely), headaches that I attributed to screen time, and a persistent brain fog that made my PhD work increasingly difficult. I thought I was burning out. I was not. My pituitary was making four times the normal amount of prolactin.
The cabergoline response was remarkable. Within three weeks, my period returned. Within a month, the fatigue began to lift. Within three months, the brain fog cleared and I could read papers and write again at my previous level. The repeat MRI at six months showed the adenoma had shrunk to 4mm.
I have been on cabergoline for two years now. Prolactin stays between 6-10 ng/mL. The main side effect I notice is occasional mild nausea on the day I take it, which I manage by taking it with food at bedtime. My endocrinologist has mentioned trying to taper off to see if the adenoma stays controlled, which we will attempt next year.
The r/Prolactinoma subreddit was genuinely helpful during the initial panic. Hearing from hundreds of people who had been through the same thing and were living normal lives on medication made the diagnosis feel manageable rather than catastrophic.