Hyperprolactinemia is responsible for 20 to 25% of consultations of secondary
amenorrhea and 17% for
female infertility.
Dopamine agonists are the gold standard treatment of
hyperprolactinemia. Although they are associated with various adverse effects,
cabergoline is generally preferred due to better compliance, limited side effects and good therapeutic response. However,
bromocriptine is widely and satisfactorily used in a context of limited availability of
cabergoline. We sought to describe clinical manifestations of
hyperprolactinemia and response to
cabergoline in a sub Saharan Africa (SSA) setting. We describe the profile of all patients with a diagnosis of
hyperprolactinaemia from 1st July 2012 to 15th May 2014 at the Endocrinology Department of Yaoundé Central Hospital. Patients with physiological
hyperprolactinemia were not considered. All patients were routinely started on
cabergoline at 0.5mg/week or at 1mg/week in case of
macroprolactinoma or desire to become pregnant. The duration of follow up was 8-16 months. After three months of treatment, 8 of 10 patients with
amenorrhea had menses and serum
prolactin levels decreased significantly at month 2-3 (p = 0.025). In conclusion, our study suggests that
cabergoline yields an excellent therapeutic response in a short period of time and may thus be cost saving in sub Saharan context despite its unit price.