Babydoctor - luteal phase defect when breastfeeding?

I asked my doctor today about this and she told me that I'd have to choose between breastfeeding and trying to conceive again. She said there is nothing that can be done. (This is after she asked me what a luteal phase defect was because she hadn't heard of it before, so I'm not convinced she knows anything about fertility).

I had my son last December (he is currently 11 months old). I breastfeed 3-5 times per day and my periods resumed in June when he was 6 months old. I have been charting BBT and other fertile signs and my cycles have been about 28-37 days in length, but ovulation has been very late in my cycle each time. My longest luteal phase has been 8 days, the shortest has been 3 days.

I have experimented a little with vit B6 and I took vitex for one cycle. Despite taking more vit B6 last cycle than previous cycles, my luteal phase actually got shorter and was just 5 days. Ovulation did correspond with my son's illness so he was feeding more, I don't know if that could have affected my luteal phase.

Is the problem most likely to be egg quality (seeing as I'm ovulating close to CD30) or progesterone issues?
What are my options?
What would be the best way to sort things out?
If a supplement, what dosage should I take that is safe whilst breastfeeding?

I was havin the same issues while BFing but DS2 recently stopped and now I wish I would have wait to sway until he was 2 or 3....

If you want to get preg while nursing I say do a diet, take cranberry (I heard of women taking up to 10,000 while bfing and the baby was fine), don't take herbs but drink a nursing tea (vitex), take the important nursing and prego vitamins... A, E, Cal, Mag, iron, FA... but limit D and C. b6 for LP defect, very small amount can affect most people but it my be better to start it after O.

The low sug and salt diet with cranberry should lower your ph and help conceive without risk to your nurser.

will reply properly later (after DS's bedtime), but didn't know you could get vitex as a tea?

just had a research of that fertility tea, still not convinced that vitex is safe, and I was drinking RLT already as well as peppermint tea which seem to be main ingredients of that tea along with the vitex... but I'll research more!

I wasn't planning on taking any supps other than folic acid, calcium + vit D, and vit B6 if necessary. I took vit B6 for quite a while and on my last cycle I even upped the dosage but my LP got shorter so I'm not even sure if it works for me.

well, a little update. After encouragement from others on here I went and got a second opinion, and although this doctor was nicer and more sympathetic she was equally unhelpful - wouldn't suggest dosages of vit B6/vitex, no info about progesterone/how that can help, wouldn't prescribe anything ("it's not the done thing in THIS country despite what you've read on the internet"). She advised me to let nature take it's course and to keep having sex twice a week.

am I just being impatient or unrealistic? seriously do I have to drop BF/drastically reduce it in order to conceive? what is the best approach now in terms of SAFE things I can take that can help?

Now, I don't know a ton about it...but would purchasing a low dose, non prescription progesterone be out of the question? I hope others can help you, Rainbow. This is a very frustrating situation to be in. One question- how often does your LO nurse? Does he nurse at night?

it really is frustrating!
when my cycles resumed he was feeding 2-3 times overnight, about 6-8 times in total during the day. It then dropped to just once overnight (for a few weeks) before he started nursery and he's been poorly almost constantly since then so it went back to 2-3 times each night.
For the last week I've held strong and he's had his bedtime milk and then just one night feed, going to try and keep this up even if it involves 2hours of crying in the middle of the night until he learns to self-settle better. He has 4 feeds in total each day now which is the fewest we've ever done - morning, mid-afternoon, bedtime, late evening (dreamfeed or nightfeed). He turns one in 2 weeks, so then we'll start thinking about dropping the afternoon one. As soon as his sleeping becomes less erratic the late evening feed will go too so we'll just do the morning and bedtime feeds.

the progesterone cream is something I'd like to consider but you have to keep it up until 10-12 weeks and I'm nervous about self-medicating on something like that!

I found my LP really lengthened when my LO's stopped nursing at night-I really hope it does the same for you:) are you still concerned about taking vitex? It's been used for a very long time by midwives/naturopaths etc and with amount your DS would be getting from a few feedings per day(almost nil)I would say it could really help you. I took less than half the recommended dose and it helped me:) Just a thought! xo

yeah still concerned to some extent - shame no studies have actually been done on it! would blame myself if my DS grows up to have hormone issues...

how much did you take? 400mg?

I took 2 80mg capsules:)

maybe I should track down some smaller dosages then

just done some Googling and found a few links that say that breast milk composition doesn't appear to change when taking vitex... http://longwoodherbal.org/vitex/vitex.pdf

I know for me it increased my milk supply:) I talked to a bunch of people before I started it as well and was never told that it could be harmful. I didn't want to overdo it though which is why I went with a smaller dose. I figure if a person can take depression meds, birth control pills and get a CT scan without needing to stop breastfeeding- a bit of chaste berry will be fine! If it helps to regulate hormones but it isn't a "hormone" per say, its different than taking a man made substance. With the hormone issues everyone seems to have now, I'm actually hoping that the natural stuff I take will regulate my hormones so that my boys will be healthier from being inside a hormone balanced Mama:) Just my thoughts!

Rainbow, just a thought - I used to do a dreamfeed with the boys when they were younger and it helped but when they got a little older it actually seemed to disturb their night rather than help and if I let them sleep through it (of course I fed them if they woke!) they would often wake the same amount of times, or less, during the night. It's almost as though by waking/stirring them for a feed a few hours after bedtime you're setting them up for a pattern of waking every few hours during the night iykwim? It might be something to try and if it's the same for you it's an easy feed to drop!

Doula that's an interesting way to think of it, thank you. Perhaps the small dose is better afterall for me too

Zana - only just reintroduced the dreamfeed so he doesn't get as comfortable with waking up, "demanding" milk and getting it (before 12am) and then expecting that at every wake up in the night. The one night I've managed to give him the dreamfeed this week he slept right through until 6.30am. Last night he woke up before my planned DF time and so I had to feed him then, the night before it I actually fell asleep early and slept through my alarm and he woke at 5.30am so I felt I had to feed him and get him up for the day as he'd gone 10hrs between feeds by then. I don't think he has issues with the dreamfeed itself

Just an update, last cycle I did only 4 BFs a day (morning, afternoon, bedtime, dreamfeed) for most of the cycle and didn't take vitex or vitamin B6; and my luteal phase went up to 9 days (yay!).

For the whole of this cycle I've been down to 2 BFs a day (morning and bedtime). I'm also taking vitex and vit B6 again this cycle. Currently at 7dpo but hopefully I'll reach it past 11dpo before AF turns up this cycle, unless I get a BFP which I'd be happier with! I'm hoping the reduction of feeds as well as the supplements I've been taking will extend it and make me fertile again.