nursing and fertility drugs

[lindsayjean]

Just curious if someone could tell me a bit about this... like clomid- is it safe to take while breastfeeding? Just curious

Background- took us a long time to conceive #1 and I basically rarely ovulate unless but on drugs to make me ovulate. I thought I had miraculously got pregnant this month... now I am thinking I got a false positive, or evap line, or SOMETHING because all the tests were negative. I'm just ready to possibly to something about it...

[luckymamato2]

I personally would not be comfortable taking clomid while nursing.

[Julia'sMom]

I did take clomid while nursing, previous history similar to yours. It is considered "safe" but has a possibility of decreasing your milk supply while the drug is in your system. Luckily, it didn't touch mine but I also didn't respond to it. Check out Hale's book Medications and Mother's Milk for more info on the drug.

Two further notes, a lot of OB's and RE's won't let you take clomid or anything else until weaning since the nursing may still affect your fertility. Also, for anyone else reading, I didn't take it until my dd was over 18 months old because I didn't want her to get any of the drugs while nursing was her primary food source.

[glowan1]

I have a similar history to yours. I just saw my crunchy OB last week regarding infrequent periods. She checked my thyroid and prolactin levels. DD is 3 and nursing 4-7 times a day. My blood work was normal (thyroid 2.5 and prolactin 11, so no other issues) and my OB said she was comfortable with me taking clomid while nursing. No need to taper down or stop while on the clomid. Her reasoning was it stimulated my body to make the hormones it normally would anyway.

DH and I need to really discuss if we want to pursue another pregnancy or not before I call the doc/midwife for the prescription.

[ChelseaW]

Clomid can decrease your milk supply. It doesn't for everyone, but it is a risk. Of course, pregnancy can do the same thing, so obviously if you wnat to get pg right now that's going to be a risk no matter what.

Some doctors won't put you on Clomid unless they know that you aren't ovulating. It's very hard to tell while you're still BFing if you're not ovulating because of infertility or because of the BFing itself.

[lindsayjean]

Thank you- she is very close to weaning- yesterday she did not nurse at all and today she has once... just slowly letting her decide when she wants to be done. i strongly believe my lack of cycles and my infertility is due to the fact that I ovulate MAYBE a couple of times a year.... have been this way since I started having AFs as a teen. I will go to the OBGYN next week so we'll see what they say!

[Kerr096]

My Re said no nursing while taking fertility drugs. We were going to do a embryo transfer for IVf this november and the RE wanted me to wean 90 days prior. My crunchy ob said not a big deal prog and estrogen increase when preg and women breastfeed while preg all the time. (prog and estrogen are used during the embryo transfer cycle) I decided to wait until next year to see if dd weaned on her own by then. Good luck!

[Flower of Bliss]

I've taken Clomid while nursing DD. We've tried 3 rounds, a few months between each round, all after DD turned 1, with no luck. I was very forthright with the fertility specialist about the fact that I am nursing. He didn't have a problem with it at all. I also read Hale's summary on my own before discussing it with the ob. I conceived DD with the same ob using Clomid and an HCG shot. I'm guessing that the lack of response is due to how much my DD is still nursing. We plan to try again in the fall. At the moment I don't plan to wean DD before then. She'll be about 26 months when we try again.

Good luck. Infertility sucks