Prolactin: What Affects The Test
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What Affects the Test
Reasons you may not be able to have the test or why the results may not be helpful include:
- Having a lot of emotional stress or doing strenuous exercise before the test.
- Trouble sleeping. Prolactin levels are highest during sleep so if you do not sleep well, your levels may be lower than normal.
- Stimulating your nipples.
- Taking certain medicines, such as birth control pills, high blood pressure medicines, tricyclic antidepressants, or medicines for mental illness, such as phenothiazines.
- Using cocaine.
- Having a test with radioactive tracer a week before the prolactin test.
| Last updated: | July 15, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Author: | Sandy Jocoy, RN |
| Reviewed By: | Joy Melnikow, MD, MPH - Family Medicine, Deborah A. Penava, BA, MD, FRCSC, MPH - Obstetrics and Gynecology |
| Editors: | Kathleen M. Ariss, MS, Tracy Landauer |
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