Hi All,
Hope you’re all well. I was hoping for some advice...I recently had a hormone blood test done through Medichecks as I wanted to check there was nothing other than my hypothyroidism going on. I had my results back today and it shows high levels of prolactin. Has anyone else had experience of this? If so what do I do next? I’m currently on my first cycle of Clomid but I’m not sure if there’s a chance it’ll work now with these results?
Any help appreciated.
X
Is it a side effect of your hypothyroidism? Did your clinic not check your levels before starting your ivf meds? Probably best to pick up the phone & chat with your clinic. Good luck Xx
Hi Jengi,
I’m not doing IVF at the moment, they’re trying me on Clomid alone before referral on the NHS. I think high prolactin can be a byproduct of hypothyroidism, just hope it’s fixable xxx
Looks like Cinderella has plenty of advice for you. Best of luck, i hope you get on top of it and best of luck with the rest of your journey.
Thank you ☺️ and to you xxxx
My underactive thyroid gave me high prolactin. It settled down once my thyroid levels were sorted! I'm surprised your clinic havent checked these things out already have a chat with them and see what they say. Give me a shout if you've any questions!!xx
Hi Cinderella5, I’ve worked a year to get my thyroid in check and now this. Feels like a constant battle to get in the right place for conception. So I take it you didn’t have to take anything to settle yours?
Xxx
I didn't, mine settled after being on levothyroxine but it took time along with my thyroid to react to the meds What were your levels? What time of day did you do your test?xx
I did mine first thing in the morning before taking my levo so around 7:15. My TSH came back 0.34 which is great for me (started at 28 last year 😓) and my T4 top of the range at 21.5 (11-25 range). No T3 in this lot of bloods though xxx
Oh wow your thyroid has come down well. Sorry, I actually meant your prolactin levels?xxx
Oh sorry lol I’m so used to concentrating on those results! Yes thank god they came down!! My prolactin came back at 647 (102 - 496 range) xx
No, I didnt ask properly! Right so stress can be a factor in your prolactin however....I'm not sure if you are aware but prolactin rises as you sleep and is best taken 4 hours after waking so I'm guessing if you did your bloods at 7am this is maybe the reason why. Perhaps your clinic or GP woul retest it for you later in the morning around lunchtime? Recon you would see a difference.xxx
Oh no I didn’t know that! Well that could make all the difference. I think I’ll try ringing my consultant tomorrow and see if he’ll agree to retest it instead of me going private for bloods again. I will if I have to but fingers crossed he will. Thank you for that information, so useful xxx
No worries!! I had a nightmare with mine and only discovered about the sleep thing when I was at the end of my tether....I was always having bloods done first thing and the later appointment made all the difference!!xxx
That’s so good to know. I think with thyroid bloods it’s so important to do first thing that I forget it could be completely different for other things. I really hope this is the case now. So desperate to conceive I want to get everything right xxx
Sounds like everything is on track lovely! Best of luck!xx
Thank you 😊 and to you as well xxx
Hi, on first cycle too! How is it going for you? The gave me the lowest dosage 50mg of Clomid and didn’t make me ovulate (yet), they said next month they will give me double dose 🙄
Hi FrancyItaly,
Yes I’m on 50mg too, took my last one tonight so a few weeks before I have day 21 bloods to see if it’s worked. Really hoping for us 🙏🏻🤞🏻 xxx
Are you being monitored with scans or you to straight for the 21 bloods? Hope it will work! ✨
No just the 21 day bloods on the first cycle. What about you? It does make me nervous I’m not being scanned though xx
Yes I have Pcos and I was scanned on day 2, 10 and 12... They wanted me to go back but I had no follicles and I gave up for this cycle 😅 but next week I should get my period again and hopefully it will make ovulate this time!
You can always ask to have a scan around day 10-12 to check your follicles?
My prolactin seemed a bit high to me too, it was around 271, not sure if it’s high.
They haven’t told me I have PCOS, I think they’re trying the Clomid as everything else has come back normal so I guess unexplained. I’m a bit annoyed I had to do the prolactin test privately really but I’ll see if I can address it with the consultant.
Sounds like you’re having really good monitoring which is great! I really hope it works for you on the higher dose xx
Sometimes they give Clomid to produce more follicles, in my case they prescribed it because I don’t ovulate 😑 All the best, let me know how it goes for you xxx
Yes and you as well 🤞🏻 we got this! Xx
I had issues with prolactin too. But to me it depended on the times of day I took the blood tests. I found towards midday was better and showed no high levels of prolactin than first in the morning. You might want to do a retest to check again. Prolactin levels do tend to fluctuate over the course of the day.
Hi Chumi, yes only just realised the time of day can affect. Not sure if mine are overly high though for that time of the day as they are over the high end of the scale? It’s a minefield all of this xx
I had high prolactin levels and was put on metformin and clomid x
Hi Lucyhannah1, did you find that these helped your levels? I’m on Clomid now but took the blood test before I started my first round xx
They did but unfortunately I still didn’t fall pregnant after 5 cycles of clomid And so I had IVF! Wishing you luck xx
Thank you, and to you as well xxx
Prolactin is a relatively sensitive hormone and can be affected by stress, other hormones etc. It is good to get it checked out though. I was sure I was only stressed when I had high levels of prolactin and didn’t check it properly but after a couple of years without period it turned out I had a microadenoma (benign tumour) on my pituitary which messed with things. It was easy enough to get under control with a drug (cabergoline) and isn’t usually dangerous. But I wasted a couple of years thinking I’m just stressed.
Your numbers seem to be just above the levels, so less likely to be a tumour and more likely to be something else, but I’d still go to your GP and have it checked out. It’s usually more blood tests (I also had a titre with a half day of blood tests a couple of hours apart) and if they are still high they’ll likely do a MRI to check the brain.
I hope this doesn’t worry you as it isn’t really anything to worry about and once hormones are under control it should be easier to conceive.
Good luck and hopefully it’s down next time you test 
Hi Sandyels,
Thank you for all that I really do appreciate it. Yes I’m definitely going to follow it up and hope they take me seriously, it can be a battle sometimes. I hope getting it under control won’t be too bad, it seems to be one thing after the next sometimes xxx
For me I got it down with the medication immediately. Hadn’t had a regular period for a couple of years and after one month it was regular and blood levels were back to normal. So it was a quick.
That’s really good to hear! Thank you xx
Hello! I had very high prolactin (Over 1000) when in a stressful job, lost my period for a year. Prolactin stops us ovulating. Definitely check if there’s anything going on like a benign tumour on pituitary if you’re concerned. I was super stressed.
At the same time, if you’re not already doing yoga/tai chi, perhaps start qui gong (we do qui gong with tai chi) which brings stress down brilliantly. And do meditation to binaural beat music. Check out releasing the throat chakra meditations on YouTube if you’re interested.
Also we don’t have enough iodine in our diet. I take Lugols Iodine. We need iodine for our thyroid to operate correctly. A few drops is all you need... If you want to reduce drugs and do it naturally. There’s a lot of research out there on it.
I hope this helps 🙏 xx
Hi FertileMind,
Thank you for that! I’ll definitely have a look at those recommendations. At this point I’ll do anything to give us the best chance.
Xx
I had high prolactin and i had to get it down before I could conceive. Took some medication (do not remember which as of now) and it went down to normal levels again. If you have high prolactin its like your breast feeding apparently and harder to conceive....
Hi Corchi,
Yes that’s what I’m worried about. Do you mind me asking how long it took for you to lower yours with medication?
Xx
I retested in a month and had gone down significantly
That’s really good to hear. I’m hoping I’ll have the same luck if I can get through to them xx
Good luck! It’s super fixable don’t worry. Be glad you found it ❤️
Me! 🙋🏻♀️ I had very high prolactin levels and had to refer myself privately as they were so high. When I did the blood test a couple of months later, my levels had dropped to normal. I think levels can very month to month so it shouldn’t be anything to worry about. Mine were very high - way over the norm, and then dropped to normal. Hope yours drop soon too xx
Hi Anz07,
So did yours drop on their own or did you need to take medication?
Xx
They dropped on their own. I did nothing. ☺️ My understanding is that high prolactain can be linked to stress, so be mindful of your day to day stress levels. Other than that, you will likely see a different reading on your next blood test. 🤞🏽
Thank you I really hope that’s the case 🙏🏻 xx
I first found I had high prolactin a couple of years ago (over 1,000) then over the past couple of years it’s gone up and down so they did an MRI to check for a prolactinoma (pretty harmless) tumour but I didn’t have one 🙂
My second go at ivf in June was cancelled due to high prolactin-annoyingly after I’d already done two weeks of injections!!! (my first go was cancelled in March due to Covid).
They put me on bromocriptine 2.5 twice a week and it brought it down to normal levels so I could start again in August.
I’ve now just finished my first proper round and a week ago got positive 🤩.
Good luck!!!
Wow that’s wonderful news! Congratulations! So glad you got there, it’s so daunting when you feel there are so many hurdles in the way xx
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