Thank you everyone for all the insightful replies to my question about
breastfeeding and perimenopause.

I agree that this doctor is sadly uneducated about breastfeeding issues and
is also woefully unappreciative of the importance of this bond to the
breastfeeding dyad. While I also agree that we as women shouldn't feel that
the burden of proof is on us when a doctor makes a claim we dispute, I think
a main issue here is that the mother lives in a very small village in the UK
and feels stuck with this particular doctor. She does not want to wean but
feels she needs to disclose her continued breastfeeding to the doctor and so
feels very under attack for her choices. She's conveyed to me that she now
feels confident that she's doing the best thing for herself and her baby and
plans to stand up to her doctor and continue to breastfeed her son.

Judith and Nikki asked how the doctor had arrived at the perimenopause
diagnosis in the first place. The mother has undergone testing to check her
hormone levels (FSH and LH). The results came back normal about 1/3 of the
time and indicative of perimenopause the other 2/3. This, combined with her
symptoms, led to the diagnosis. The doctor believes she is perimenopausal
because since her miscarriage (last July) her periods have been 25 days, 27
days, 30 days, 40 days, and 22 days (though to me that doesn't sound that
problematic, particularly in the months after a miscarriage), and the
previously mentioned sleeplessness and PMS. At 37, the mother is on the
young side for perimenopause but doesn't dispute the diagnosis itself, just
the doctor's insistance to wean her son. Given that perimenopause can last
as long as 10 years though, I have to wonder how much of this is truly early
perimenopause, and how much is because we now have more testing available
and more information available than women had in earlier years. How much is
an early onset of perimenopause, and how much is simply catching it
earlier?...

Thank you all again for the wealth of information and thought-provoking
discussion discussion.

Robin Epstein
LLL Leader and studying towards the exam
Yehud, Israel (where spring has finally sprung!)

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