As i mentioned in my introduction, this mom could really use advice about
the following:

she currently has a 5 month old baby - conceived after several miscarriages
and with progesterone treatments to help with conception and to prevent
miscarriage of htis baby.

She wants to have another baby - and at age 41 right now, with a history of
problems conceiving and carrying to term, her doctor has advised her to
start trying, with the progesterone treatments, when her daughter will be  6
months of age.  She is not willing to stop breastfeeding so early (she would
nurse a three year old if she had the option), but she and her husband have
pretty much decided ot start trying at 9 months instead - a harsh
compromise.  however, she got her period recently, so she no longer needs to
quit breastfeeding to encourage ovulation - it is just a matter of hte
progesterone treatments.

An  LLL leader told her she  thought taking small doses of progesterone was
ok.  But this mom has to take it by injection in large doses.  She has not
asked anyone, but  assumes that much progesterone can't be good for a baby.

She has to take an injection of progesterone every 12 hours, and the
progesterone levels stay pretty high in her system, apparently.  According
to the mom, with most pregnant women, they want their progesterone levels to
stay above 15 units (not sure what measure they use).  For her, they wanted
her level to stay above 30, but they usually kept it much higher than that.
They claim that high levels of progesterone don't negatively affect the
fetus, but thre is very little info about breastmilk.

Also, with the last pregnancy, she only had to take progesterone injections
for the first 10 weeks. After that, she took a sublinqual tablet for 2 more
weeks.

so, i guess the questions are:

is progesterone contraindicated for breastfeeding?

if so, at what doses?

if so, why - (just influencing supply - or affecting the baby as well?)

if so, can she pump and dump, or does the drug stay in the milk the whole time?

any other thoughts on this subject that might help her not have to wean her
baby so young?

Thank you!

Lyla

Lyla