Is it normal for men to lactate

Prolactin is ultimately metabolized by the liver helping to regulate its concentration in the body in conjunction with certain mechanisms in the hypothalamus. More recently a report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal documented a case of a man who had a pituitary tumor that resulted in, among other things, overproduction of prolactin, causing him to lactate. Have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers?

And a similar much more modern and well documented report was made in of a Sri Lankan man, Mr. B Wijeratne, who took up breastfeeding his 18 month old daughter after his wife died giving birth to their second child. This process can commonly be observed in cases of women adopting babies and wanting to breastfeed them. They are able to achieve this via regularly having the child suckle and further using a breast pump every few hours over the course of several weeks.

While that may seem a small percentage, it should be noted that nearly all women were at least able to provide some milk to their adopted babies. This same thing can also be observed in various animals, including sometimes used to cause goats who have never had kids to produce milk. Sort of bizarre, but the kittens never seemed worse for wear and grew up to be seemingly healthy cats. For some men, this may be high enough to trigger milk production, allowing the male to breastfeed a baby.

There are also some drugs that occasionally have the side effect of increased prolactin concentration in the body sufficient to cause male lactation, such as the antipsychotic chlorpromazine marketed under the name Thorazine and Largactil and the heart medication digoxin marketed under the name Lanoxin, among other names.

Human embryos all start out pretty much the same, until the fourth week of gestation when the genes on chromosome 23 kick in, creating sex differences. Cut to puberty, when the pituitary gland helps those mammaries mature in females. The result is that female mammaries become primed for milk production at puberty, so that any spike in the hormone prolactin causes them to lactate. So men come into this world with all the right hardware for the job, but puberty sets dads-to-be down the wrong path for milk production.

When a man does lactate and yes, it happens it is almost always a symptom of an underlying medical problem or thanks to injections of estrogen and prolactin, which come with a slew of side effects.

Male lactation is a known side effect of anabolic steroids and Thorazine , an antipsychotic drug. The pituitary gland and the hypothalamus are located within the brain and control hormone production. Galactorrhea often results from having too much prolactin — the hormone responsible for milk production when you have a baby. Prolactin is produced by your pituitary gland, a small bean-shaped gland at the base of your brain that secretes and regulates several hormones.

Sometimes doctors can't find a cause for galactorrhea. This is called idiopathic galactorrhea, and it may just mean that your breast tissue is particularly sensitive to the milk-producing hormone prolactin in your blood. If you have increased sensitivity to prolactin, even normal prolactin levels can lead to galactorrhea. In males, galactorrhea may be associated with testosterone deficiency male hypogonadism and usually occurs with breast enlargement or tenderness gynecomastia.

Erectile dysfunction and a lack of sexual desire also are associated with testosterone deficiency. Galactorrhea sometimes occurs in newborns. High maternal estrogen levels cross the placenta into the baby's blood. This can cause enlargement of the baby's breast tissue, which may be associated with a milky nipple discharge.

Follow Joseph Castro on Twitter. Originally published on Live Science. Live Science. Joseph Castro.