I got an email from a mother nursing a 23 month old baby.  She had serotonin
levels done on urine and serum and these were elevated.  The tests were done
for severe PMS.  Because the levels are elevated, apparently everyone is
worrying about carcinoid syndrome, though the mother has no symptoms of
that.  She wrote to ask if breastfeeding elevated serotonin levels in urine
and serum.  They are also looking to do an octreotide scan (whatever that
is), to look for a carcinoid tumour.

I must say all this sounds really strange to me, and the whole approach to
PMS hairbrained.  But I also must say I never heard of any of this, and
though I told her:

1. I would not do the scan and
2. I would ignore the serotonin levels altogether,

I also said I would post her letter to the list and see what people thought.
I deleted the letter by accident, but I have a hard copy, and that is the
gist of it, resumed above.

I am leaving to do conferences in Illinois, and in Hong Kong and will be
away from my computer and Lactnet from Thursday until at least November 1,
so please respond to her directly, as well as to the list.  Her email is
[log in to unmask]

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC