Vicki I recently looked up some info on Sheehan's. (Also called postpartun pituitary necrosis syndrome, Reye's Syndrome, postpartun hypopituitarism.) Sheehan's syndrome is a condition that may occur in a woman who has a postpartum haemorrhage that is severe enough to decrease the blood flow to the pituitary gland resulting in an infarction and necrosis or other vascular injury to the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland is a highly vascular organ. During pregnancy the pituitary becomes enlarged, but its blood supply becomes diminished during childbirth and it is particularly susceptible to thrombosis. Sheehan's syndrome is the only commonly recognised endocrine disorder associated with lactation failure. Hypoprolactinaemia results following necrosis of the pituitary stalk, causing mammary involution and failure of lactation. It occurs in 0.01% to 0.02% of postpartum women. Symptoms include: initial weight gain followed by weight loss postpartum, loss of pubic and axillary hair, intolerance to cold, hypotension, breast and vaginal tissue atrophy. A key clinical sign of Sheehan's syndrome is the failure to lactate following birth. Spontaneous recovery can occur depending on the degree of infarction and regeneration. This condition can be life-threatening if not treated because of the lack of thyroid and adrenal hormones, which allow the body to react to stress or infections. Jean Ridler RN RM IBCLC Cape Town [log in to unmask] --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.510 / Virus Database: 307 - Release Date: 2003/08/14 *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html