To add to the anecdotes of the week.  Yesterday I had an email conversation
with the mother of a *20* month old (somewhere in the world) who is being
told that if she wants to get pregnant she must stop breastfeeding (OB's,
endocrinologists, all with the same line, though the gp is wondering about
all this). She has *regular periods* and has had for several months, and is
only nursing a few times a day (3 or 4).  I told her she was being spun a
line, and suggested, without knowing, that I would bet she had been urged to
take birth control in the first few months "because breastfeeding did not
prevent conception".

Sure enough, she answered back that she had been told in the first few
months to use birth control because breastfeeding did not prevent
conception, and now she was being told to stop breastfeeding because she
wouldn't get pregnant otherwise.

If it weren't so stupid, I would laugh.

Incidentally, I always learned that we generally do not work someone up for
"infertility" unless they have been trying unsuccessfully for 2 years.  And
we strongly encourage them to do their homework ("devoir" in French, meaning
"duty").  Here is a woman who is only 20 months postpartum, and already she
has had preliminary tests (prolactin and other hormone levels etc).

Wow.  What a system.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC