Breastfeeding / Progesterone/ Think I need to wean...

[Piglet's Mama]

I think I'm going to have stop breastfeeding altogether.

My boy is 29 months and in the last few weeks I've stopped nursing him in the day and am down to just one feed before he goes to sleep and a feed if he wakes in the night (maybe once a week) and a feed first thing in the morning. I have exclusively fed him since he was born; he never took a bottle (he refused!)

My periods came back when I stopped co-sleeping with him at about 18 months. I'm definitely ovulating (well about 99% sure based on regular cycles, changes in my CM, I temped last month etc) but AF caught me again this afternoon. Onto the 5th month of TTC...

I know that prolactin stops you from ovulating but as I say, I am ovulating. My LP is usually around 12-13 days but the last two cycles I have started spotting on CD10/11 which could perhaps be a luteal defect.

After sobbing on and off all day and feeling totally hopeless about why I'm not falling, I spent all evening researching after a friend said in passing, "are you sure it's not the breastfeeding?" I had totally assumed that because my periods came back and that I'm ovulating that breastfeeding would have zero impact on TTC. I think this is proving not to be the case. It seems there are a lot of women who are or who have been in my position whereby they're nursing toddlers, albeit sporadically, and struggling to conceive. It seems to be that low levels of progesterone due to breastfeeding contributes quite massively to not conceiving.

So I think my options are (according to good old Dr Google) continue taking the agnus castus, try a B complex supplement, try a fatty diet or - which I think is going to be the most successful - stop breastfeeding.

Has anyone got any experience of this or has had a similar experience? Any advice is greatly received!

 

[Phoenix85]

I don't know.

First of all, well done breastfeeding for 2 years!

My periods returned when my youngest child was almost 17 months old. She was still breastfeeding lots including throughout the night.
At 23 months I night weaned but she still nursed a lot during the day.
When she was almost 3 I briefly reconciled with her dad and got pregnant straight away, she was still feeding lots at that point. However I did miscarry at 6/7 weeks.
I don't really think the breastfeeding was the reason for the m/c but obviously can't rule it out either.
After that we split up again and I wasn't ttc then. She self weaned aged 6. (She's now 9 and a half).

I do have friends who have conceived whilst breastfeeding, but I appreciate it's different for everyone and some people find it more difficult than others... whether it's coincidental or due to the breastfeeding is unknown.

Personally I was with a guy for a year from 2014-2015 and NTNP and never got pregnant. About 3 or 4 months after I stopped seeing him I started seeing someone else and got pregnant the only time we slept together
So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that sometimes these things just happen. I had read that soya could prevent you getting pregnant due to the (phyto) Oestrogen and as a dairy-free vegetarian I consume a fair bit of soya including soya milk in tea etc. But I still got pregnant in October even though I was having as much soya as before.

I think only you can decide what to do, and you also need to be aware that even stopping breastfeeding may not have the desired effect, that it could be coincidental and it could still take a while to conceive.
If you do decide to wean him though, try to do it gradually dropping/replacing one feed at a time.
And again, be proud you've done 2 and a half years of BFing x

 

[Clover]

Hey sweetie
I breastfed my son for 3 years I stopped just after his 3rd birthday (a year ago) as I thought this may be affecting our chances, I spoke to my Dr and she said ad long as I was having periods and signs of Ovulation then it shouldn't affect conciving
I think if you are breastfeeding a younger baby it may affect conception but because your only feeding once a day it shouldn't
After 2 years I got my Bfp this month I do believe BF didn't make any difference as I stopped a year ago
Good luck my lovely, really hope you get your Bfp very soon and well done for breastfeeding so long!!!!

xxxxxxx