Breastfeeding and Birth Control - York,PA

Hi, M.!
Fist of all, kudos to you for nursing on an extended basis! So few moms are willing to do that today. That is so wonderful & I congratulate you on that!!!

According to Dr. Hale's book "Medications & Mother's Milk" (which is a medical reference book for drugs & how safe/unsafe they are for use during pregnancy & lactation) Seasonale is listed as an L2, which is really very safe. L1 is the safest (multivitamins, tylenol, etc...) & L2 is just below that, of course. Just for a frame of reference, an L3 would be safe to take as long as the bennefits of nursing outweighed any possible (and unlikely) "risks" of taking the drug, L4 is possibly unsafe & L5 is unsafe.

It does list on another page that Seasonale specifically, is an L3, mostly for the estrogen content (can reduce your supply). There have been no other reported pediatric concerns (other than a possible reduced supply of milk) reported though.

Headache is reported as a side effect for adults though.--Just FYI.
Have you looked into a low-dose estrogen pill at all? Just a thought!

Hope that helps some!
A.

I agree with the first post, i would rather play it safe. If you only have a few months, why not hold off? I have not used "birth control" since 1997. I think a few months is not much...but i could be biased...lol!

My doc put me on the "minipill," which is one without estrogen specifically because I am nursing (Seasonale has estrogen). You'll want to confirm this, but I believe that not only does estrogen reduce your supply, but it comes out in your milk and would put estrogen in your baby's system that normally he would not have (and can cause breast buds in both baby boys and girls). Perhaps since you're only nursing a couple times a day, it's not an issue, but I'd double check and find out why your doc thinks Seasonale with its estrogen is OK.

Good luck on the pill decision and also on controlling the heavy periods (I have endometriosis, so you have my sympathies).

Do you know why you are having the heavy periods? Is there some type of cause. I know sometimes it can be uterine fibroids. I know that it can also be caused by PCOS/polycystic ovarian syndrome. You can look here to see if there is something that may help
http://www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/

While breastfeeding I also thought about going on birth controls pills and decided against it since I read that even though they believe it is safe, they do not have extended studies yet on the effects longterm on the fertility of the children. If you are concerned like I was try to wait a bit longer! Good luck!

I think you already answered your own question! LOL
I always say better safe than sorry. Why rush it, especially since pregnancy is not an issue anymore for you?