Soy Isoflavones while bf?

[mekvien]

nearly everywhere that I have found has suggested not taking them while breastfeeding, except I did find one thread on here that said it is possible to do. Wondering if anybody has ever taking them still nursing? If so what dosage and when? I am still nursing my one year old roughly 2x a day, and pumping once while at work. you still have never had a cycle after giving birth, and very anxious to start trying again I'm not quite ready to give up nursing completely. ..

[mekvien]

Anyone??

[atomic sagebrush]

if you are nursing 2x a day, it is very unlikely that it is breastfeeding that is keeping your cycle away, so please don't wean unless YOU want to. Is there any way you can give up the midday pump or do you need that milk?

My philosophy on taking things during nursing is all about the risk vs. benefit. I think if you were to take them sensibly, it's probably ok. The issue is that soy can mess with hormones and it does come out in milk so ostensibly could affect your baby and affect their hormones. Would I do it, no I wouldn't, but I did take vitex while breastfeeding twice.

But here's the deal - if your cycle hasn't come back, taking soy is not necessarily going to MAKE it come back. Especially since you are not starting it on CD 3,4,5 and are just guessing. What you're suggesting is risky because you may have eggs in development in your ovaries already and you could end up causing a cyst. Cysts can take months to resolve and you don't ovulate when you have one, in many cases. So you'd end up being in a worse situation than you were to start with, you know?

What I see is that you are considering doing something that has risks for both your nursing baby and yourself for no guaranteed benefit and possibly even making it worse.

[mekvien]

Thank you. I haven't ovulated without the help of clomid, in 10 years. I'm antsy to start TTC again. I am assuming I won't O on my own post weaning, so that's why I wanted to tey ISO flavs. Would vitex help with that?

[mekvien]

Also curious, what would taking them sensibly look like?

[2blue1pink]

When I was about 9 months pp and breastfeeding DS1, I took vitex to bring my periods back (it worked) and then soy iso to ovulate the following cycle...and here is Ds2. I don't ovulate normally without meds either. Ds1 was sleeping through the night so I just took them after he was asleep. But I took nothing after Ds2 and my period came back 9-10ish months later so maybe my body was ready anyway.

[mekvien]

When I was about 9 months pp and breastfeeding DS1, I took vitex to bring my periods back (it worked) and then soy iso to ovulate the following cycle...and here is Ds2. I don't ovulate normally without meds either. Ds1 was sleeping through the night so I just took them after he was asleep. But I took nothing after Ds2 and my period came back 9-10ish months later so maybe my body was ready anyway.

Thanks! What dosage did you take? That's the only reason I'm considering taking them, I wouldn't bf for 10 hours after taking them. Is that enough time?

[atomic sagebrush]

Thank you. I haven't ovulated without the help of clomid, in 10 years. I'm antsy to start TTC again. I am assuming I won't O on my own post weaning, so that's why I wanted to tey ISO flavs. Would vitex help with that?

Can you not get Clomid??

Vitex has seemed to help some people and not others. What you can do is look back at what your cycle was before you got pg (and in your case, since you did not have a cycle, pretend that you did based on when you ovulated/conceived) and take vitex for 2 weeks on from what would have ben CD 1-CD 14, and then take the next two weeks off vitex. REpeat till you get AF or ovulate.

[atomic sagebrush]

Also curious, what would taking them sensibly look like?

Waiting till you have AF and not just randomly starting them when you have no idea if there is any activity in your ovaries or not, then starting them on CD 3,4,or 5, for only 5 days and then nothing after that, taking a small dose like 50 or 100 mg maximum, after baby has gone to bed for the night and no cheating and nursing if he/she wakes up later!

[atomic sagebrush]

When I was about 9 months pp and breastfeeding DS1, I took vitex to bring my periods back (it worked) and then soy iso to ovulate the following cycle...and here is Ds2. I don't ovulate normally without meds either. Ds1 was sleeping through the night so I just took them after he was asleep. But I took nothing after Ds2 and my period came back 9-10ish months later so maybe my body was ready anyway.

But she was having her period and knew when to start them. the breastfeeding and safety is only part of the equation here. the real issue is that if you are not getting AF, you can't know when to take them and they probably will not work anyway, so it would be a mistake to take the risk (however miniscule) because it's not going to benefit you. It could even cause cysts that might make it take even longer for your cycle to return.

[mekvien]

Do you know the half life of SI?

[The Anchor]

I personally wouldn't risk it. I read this a few days ago:

Soy isoflavones and babies

Soy-based infant formulas are widely used. They mainly contain soy protein isolate, which also means a bunch of isoflavones.

Chris Kresser explains why this is a problem (18):

“In 1992, the Swiss Health Service estimated that women consuming the equivalent of two cups of soy milk per day provides the estrogenic equivalent of one birth control pill. That means women eating cereal with soy milk and drinking a soy latte each day are effectively getting the same estrogen effect as if they were taking a birth control pill.

This effect is even more dramatic in infants fed soy formula. The key ingredient in soy formula is soy protein isolate, a compound that is not even recognized as safe for human consumption by the FDA.

Infants fed soy receive 6.25 mg of soy isoflavones per kilogram of body weight per day. This is more than 10 times the amount of soy isoflavones that has been shown to cause problems in adults.

In a baby that weighs 13 pounds, 10 mg of soy provides the estrogenic equivalent of a birth control pill. The average amount of soy formula given to an infant in a day contains 40 mg of soy. This means that feeding soy formula to a baby is the equivalent of giving her 4 birth control pills.

This explains why babies fed soy-based formula have 13,000 to 22,000 times more estrogen compounds in their blood than babies fed milk-based formula. ” (19)

[maidentomother]

I would definitely take Vitex over Soy to try to bring on O in your situation.

[atomic sagebrush]

:agree: and I am not a fan of soy formula at all. But, I do think SI is less dangerous in this situatin than the soy formula. THe soy formula is used day in and day out in babies where it's their only source of food. I don't think that SI for 5 days when nursing an older baby is a dealbreaker in terms of safety, BUT just that there is no benefit because it's not going to get you what you're after - which is restarting ovulation.

[mekvien]

Thanks ladies, I appreciate it! I will try the vitex and continue my weight gain goal! Now that I'm only nursing twice a day and dropping pumping, I think things will start happening. Ive noticed more cm lately so that's a good sign.

[2blue1pink]

Sorry it was over 3 yrs ago so I am not positive the dosage, I think I did like 260 mg for 5 days like clomid.
I agree that clomid is better, it has shown to be OK for breastfeeding. Either way, as atomic said, you need to have a period first so you know which days to take it.

I felt OK taking it because ds1 was almost 20 lbs, wasn't nursing much (and especially not after I took it), and I only took it for 5 days- he never had any formula or anything else soy-and I only took it one month- so in the scheme of everything I wasn't too worried about it.

[mekvien]

Do u recall how long u had to take vitex before you got your period?

[atomic sagebrush]

Do u recall how long u had to take vitex before you got your period?

I took it 2 months from AF-O (I wasn't getting AF or O, I went off my old dates) then ovulated that month.

[mekvien]

What's a good dosage?

[atomic sagebrush]

Of??

Vitex is 800 mg

Soy is 100 mg usually