Can you live a normal life with a pituitary tumor?

Can you live a normal life with a pituitary tumor?

In general, when a pituitary tumor is not cured, people live out their lives but may have to deal with problems caused by the tumor or its treatment, such as vision problems or hormone levels that are too high or too low.

What would be symptoms of a person with a pituitary tumor?

Depending on which hormones are affected, symptoms might include:

• Nausea.
• Weakness.
• Unexplained weight loss or weight gain.
• Loss of body hair.
• Feeling cold.
• Feeling tired or weak.
• Menstrual changes or loss of menstrual periods in women.
• Erectile dysfunction (trouble with erections) in men.

Should I be worried about pituitary tumor?

Even when a pituitary tumor never comes back, people still worry about it. For years after treatment ends, you will see your doctor. Be sure to go to all of these follow-up visits. You will have exams, blood tests, and maybe other tests to see if the tumor has come back.

What are the chances of a pituitary tumor being cancerous?

3. Is a pituitary tumor cancer? No, in over 99% of patients, this is NOT a cancer; it is benign. Although the tumor is benign, it can cause problems because of its size, causing loss of vision, loss of normal pituitary function (hypopituitarism) and/or headache or because of excessive hormone production by the tumor.

Who is most likely to get a pituitary tumor?

When a person aged 15 to 19 has a brain tumor, a pituitary gland tumor is a common subtype diagnosis (31% of brain tumors in this age group). Women are more likely to develop these tumors than men. This type of tumor is also more likely to develop in Black people than white people.

Is a pituitary tumor considered a brain tumor?

A tumor that develops in the pituitary gland is typically considered to be a type of brain cancer. The pituitary gland, which is responsible for producing and releasing hormones into the body, is located inside the skull, just beneath the brain and above the nasal passages.

When is a pituitary tumor an emergency?

Neuro-ophthalmological symptoms such as visual impairment, sudden onset of severe headache and alteration of the level of consciousness should prompt appropriate radiological investigations, since this may well call for emergency surgery.