The disease, Sheehan's Syndrome is named after Dr. Harold Leeming Sheehan. It was 1937 that Dr. Sheehan's complete concept of the syndrome was reviewed. He emphasized that during pregnancy the pituitary becomes enlarged, but its blood supply becomes diminished. If a woman hemorrhages during childbirth it causes a severe drop in blood pressure (hypotension) and may damage the pituitary. A simple way to understand this concept is the loss of blood (hemorrhaging) to the pituitary creates an infarct, (stroke) in the pituitary. The infarct causes part or all of the pituitary to stop functioning. This damage to the pituitary gland can happen immediate after childbirth or the pituitary gland can gradually decline in function.
Many doctors have never seen a Sheehan's Syndrome patient and may have only read about the disease briefly in medical school. If this experience sounds familiar to you or someone you know, please seek medical help from an Endocrinologist that specializes in the pituitary.
Please note that this web site is not a substitute for any medical care or medical advice. I have used Wikipedia on several of my links. I know that Wikipedia is a collaboration of numerous inputs that are not always one hundred percent accurate. But, I have found that Wikipedia offers the best description to many of the words that I have linked. Again, much of the information on this site is subjective and from my personal experiences. You can read about my Sheehan's Syndrome experience, here.
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