Reasons for Light, Short Period - Breastfeeding Related?

[MissCee]

Hello. :) Hopefully this is the right place to post this question! I'm trying to avoid going to a gyno for this, so I'm hoping someone on here has some advice.

My cycles are currently 37 days long (give or take a day) and for the past 4 cycles, my period has been extremely light and short. It's mostly brown with a tiny bit of red blood, but it's not even enough to use a pad for . . I just use a pantyliner. I don't get any cramps prior to this either. Before these 4 cycles, my periods were quite heavy with very strong cramps starting the day before I would get my period and my period would last about 5 days. Now my periods are only lasting 3 days.

I'm starting to get a bit worried since this is my 4th cycle with pretty much no bleeding. I'm still breastfeeding my 19 month old son 4-5 times a day, but up until 4 cycles ago, it didn't seem like the breastfeeding was having an impact on my periods.

Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this? Thank you!

[BfeedingBabies]

Hi MissCee,

I'm going to give you a little bit of general hormonal information, but you may need to do a little bit more investigation if nothing feels quite right about what I've written.

Long cycles can be due to stress (which doesn't always mean emotional stress, sometimes it's stress in your body which prolonged breastfeeding can be if your diet isn't helping you keep up with the extra demand on kilojoules so make sure you're eating enough) or they can be due to an overactive thyroid hormone.  If you think you've been losing weight, or seem a bit on edge or hard to slow down this might possibly be something to look into.

The heavy, painful periods indicate that you're a little low in progesterone - the hormone that's predominant in the second half of your cycle - and sometimes things like acupuncture or naturopathy can help you increase this if you don't feel like using something like the mini pill (which only has progesterone and no oestrogen).

The fact that things have lightened would definitely indicate to me that your hormones have shifted a bit, sometimes this happens anyway, but given you are breastfeeding potentially your little one is feeding more and your prolactin levels have increased enough to start interfering with your cycle (make sure you're definitely not pregnant too!!).

So, i know all that is a bit confusing and potentially leading you in circles.  What I'd ask myself is:

Is my toddler feeding more than they were?

Am I maintaining my weight well?

Is my energy level okay?

Am I able to relax at the moment or do I feel on edge?

If I was worried I'd check out the signs of hyper-thyroid conditions and see if ther were any other signs that might be relevant, I'd also definitely check out my diet and how well I was looking after myself (mothering is so time consuming!!).

You could definitely chat to your doctor about it if you think they are good with this kind of thing, but as I suggested earlier you can also try some natural therapies too.

Hope this helps x