Chiari-Frommel Syndrome

Chiari-Frommel syndrome is a rare hormonal condition in which a woman continues to produce breast milk and stops having menstrual periods for an extended time after childbirth, well beyond the period of normal breastfeeding. It results from persistently elevated levels of the hormone prolactin, which keeps the body in a milk producing state and suppresses the hormones needed to restart ovulation. The condition can arise on its own after pregnancy or be caused by a prolactin secreting pituitary tumor, and distinguishing between the two is an important step in diagnosis. It is named for the Swiss physician Johann Baptist Chiari and the German gynecologist Richard Frommel, who separately described the pattern in the nineteenth century, and treatment depends on the underlying cause, ranging from observation to medication that lowers prolactin levels.