Hi Christina. About 9.5 to 10 years ago an MRI showed that I had a pituitary microadenoma. I obviously saw an endocrinologist like you are. At the time, he said it was still small, but that if it grew much larger that I would need a surgery to remove it. He said it was a surgery where they'd approach it through my nose past the sinus cavity, reaching to where the pituitary gland is in the brain. I have to tell you that was pretty scary of a prospect.


At that time mentioned above, I had recently had ECT and soon after became depressed again on Depakote and Invega, the combo I was on for much of a year of depression prior to the ECT. Between my depression and Depakote and Invega, I had gained a lot of weight and became pre-diabetic, had high triglycerides, and high cholesterol. Finally a psychiatrist took me off Depakote and Invega around the time of my MRI, for those reasons and hyperprolactinemia. I was switched to Lithium, Lamictal, Tegretol XR, and Geodon. About six months later, I had lost almost 40 lbs on a low"ish" carb diet, and then had a follow-up MRI. It was like a miracle! The pituitary microadenoma was completely gone. In the meantime, I had googled "pituitary microadenoma" and found many results that indicated that Risperdal (risperidone) seems to increase the likelihood of developing such pituitary tumors. Since Invega is like a close cousin to Risperdal, I assumed that was perhaps a factor in me developing the tumor. Hyperprolactinemia is also frequently observed in people (mostly women) on both Risperdal and Invega, a side effect that I, personally, have never had on any other antipsychotics.


I told the endocrinologist that I believed that the disappearance of my pituitary microadenoma was a result of stopping Invega about six months plus prior. Stopping Invega also normalized my prolactin level. Clearly related. He was very skeptical. I stopped going to him and have since had another MRI with zero tumor showing.