Elizabeth Peyton wrote, in reference to her client/friend with no ovaries:

>Both Ruth Lawrence and Ed Newton tell me to expect successful lactation
>and to supplement estrogen soon after birth (like 2 weeks)

I read the same comment in Lawrence, when I was looking for info for one of
our clients who was planning to take supplemental estrogen after delivery to
help ward off her chronic problem with depression, and it raised this
question.  Why can a mom take supplemental estrogen or, after a few months,
the progestin-only contraceptive but can't take the combination contraceptive
pill?  (I know from personal experience with the high-dose pills of 29 years
ago that they suppress lactation very quickly.) Are the estrogen dosages that
much different, or does it have to do with the combined effect?  In that
case, should a mom on supplemental estrogen not use a progestin-only form of
birth control in the later months of breastfeeding? Thanks in advance for any
info from the pharmacologists and doctors among us.

Judy D in WV