Why do I have breast milk when I am not pregnant?

In daily life, many women may easily encounter the situation where milk appears in their breasts without being pregnant. There are many reasons why non-pregnant women secrete milk. This may be a manifestation of a disease. Women with breast diseases or breast problems are prone to milk secretion. Usually, more observation is needed and detailed examinations can be done for treatment.

Why do I have breast milk when I am not pregnant?

1. In the absence of pregnancy, milk secretion is a pathological phenomenon, and this disease is called "hyperprolactinemia". Patients with hyperprolactinemia, in addition to galactorrhea, often also have varying degrees of menstrual disorders. Severe cases may even experience symptoms such as amenorrhea, hair loss, weight gain, headache, visual impairment, and genital atrophy, forming a group of diseases with galactorrhea, amenorrhea, and infertility as the main manifestations, also known as "galactorrhea-amenorrhea syndrome."

2. There are many causes of hyperprolactinemia, including hypothalamic disorders, pituitary disorders, primary hypothyroidism, drug factors, nerve stimulation, etc. If people stay up late for a long time and have irregular work and rest schedules, the body's biological clock will be disrupted, and the regulation of the "hypothalamus-pituitary-ovarian" gonadal axis may be broken, which in turn causes hyperprolactinemia.

3. The secretion of milk by non-pregnant women is also called "hyperprolactinemia". Patients with hyperprolactinemia, in addition to galactorrhea, are often accompanied by varying degrees of menstrual disorders. In severe cases, they may even experience symptoms such as amenorrhea, hair loss, weight gain, headache, visual impairment, and genital atrophy, forming a group of diseases with galactorrhea, amenorrhea, and infertility as the main manifestations, also known as "galactorrhea and amenorrhea syndrome." However, regardless of the severity of the symptoms, the main cause is the excessive production of prolactin.

4. A woman's breasts will secrete milk only after giving birth. However, some unmarried girls may suddenly find wet stains on their bras. If you squeeze your breasts occasionally, you can see a white liquid similar to milk flowing out. To explain the reason, we must first understand the production of milk after women give birth: the development of women's breasts is mainly affected by the effects of estrogen and progesterone secreted by the ovaries.

Why do I have milk when I'm not pregnant?

Whether the breasts secrete milk depends mainly on the prolactin secreted by the body. Under normal circumstances, the prolactin level in the body is very low and can only maintain normal breast development, so it cannot make the breasts secrete milk. However, when prolactin is secreted excessively, lactation may occur in nursing mothers, young girls, or even men. When young men and women are in the stage of passionate love, if their breasts and other sexually sensitive parts are touched or kissed by their lovers, this sexual stimulation can also cause excessive release of prolactin in the body through the nerve nuclei of the hypothalamus, prompting milk secretion. But this situation is different from the breast milk after childbirth. The former is light yellow and small in quantity; the latter is white, larger in quantity, and thicker. Zhong Ling belongs to the first category.

There is another situation, that is, if some unmarried women have amenorrhea in addition to spontaneous milk secretion, this situation indicates that they may suffer from "prolactinemia" or "hyperprolactinemia". These two conditions can occur at the same time or separately, and are medically known as "lactation amenorrhea syndrome." The reason for lactation amenorrhea is due to endocrine dysfunction in the body, which causes excessive secretion of prolactin. In addition, lactation and amenorrhea may also occur if there are tumors, inflammation or hypothyroidism in certain areas of the chest, if you take reserpine, sleeping pills, antipsychotics, birth control pills, or if you have a pituitary tumor.