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View Full Version : help - having a wobble about Vitex


rainbowflower
October 12th, 2011, 07:31 AM
I know Vitex is generally considered safe when BF, but I've had a sudden gut feeling that I should stop taking it... and I like to trust my gut feeling. It's the safety of my son that I'm worried about and the affect on HIS hormones from the amount of vitex he gets through my milk. I know this is likely to be negligible, but I have to live with this decision.

I'm CD10 today (so took 800mg vitex from CD2-CD9).

Last cycle I was taking the same quantity from CD1 - CD17(ish), I stopped when I saw my LH getting stronger on my OPKs and temps then show I OVed on CD19. The two previous cycles when I didn't take vitex I oved on CD29 and then CD31.

Thing is, today is a full moon. If I stop taking it today will that cause hormones to go haywire and OV to happen sooner? I'd ideally like to not OV for another week! Or would I OV earlier than I had been before vitex but not as early as last cycle, so somewhere between CD19 and CD31, because I wouldn't have been taking it for long enough?

I did an OPK last night and that showed a faint second line - something I usually get about a week before ovulation, and CM has also just started to turn creamy so I do think OV is about a week away if I carried on taking it.

All thoughts and comments welcome!
rainbowflower
October 15th, 2011, 07:03 AM
anyone? :)
atomic sagebrush
October 15th, 2011, 10:45 AM
1)Always go with your gut!! But do know that there are hundreds of other things your son comes into contact with that prob. affect hormones more than the vitex does - including your OWN hormones that he gets via the breast milk.

2)Stopping the V can def. make your hormones do unpredictable things but whether or not you'll O sooner or later, no one can say. My experience seems to be that I tend to O within a day or two of stopping the vitex. It all matters how much the vitex is even affecting your ovulation. It may be that it's doing nothing and your cycle is just getting shorter because baby is older now, in which case stopping it isn't going to change anything that wasn't going to happen already.