At several conferences, I have asked how long women have observed drops of
milk from the breast after weaning.  Longest reported in these admittedly
anecdotal cases was 9 years!  None of these women also reported having a
prolactinoma.  All appeared to be healthy and thought of themselves in this
way.  What was difficult for all (or nearly all) of them was the assumption
by their physicians (who thought to ask or had noted this on exam) that
this was ABNORMAL.

Perhaps what is needed is a careful assessment of post-weaning women to
determine how long is normal and when such a sign of former milk production
is no longer normal.  Clearly, in the presence of a prolactinoma, it might
not be.  But, I hate to see people jumping to inappropriate conclusions
simply for lack of understanding what normal is.

Comments, anyone?



"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly
disguised as impossible situations."
Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Ferndale, WA USA) [log in to unmask]
WEB PAGE: http://www.telcomplus.com/~kga/lactation.html
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