FET while still breastfeeding?

[Anonymous]

I nursed through a FET that was successful and am due in the spring. My kid was 19 months at the time of the transfer and was down to nursing 1-2 times a day for only a few minutes at a time. Based on the information I found online, prolactin returns to pre pregnancy levels once your cycle resumes. I'd been having regular cycles by that point for probably eight months. I checked with my daughter's pediatrician about the medications and dosages I would be on (estrogen and endometrin). She looked up the information about what is passed through the milk, and gave me the green light bc of how little breastmilk my daughter was actually consuming. My RE told me no FET until my kid had been weaned for two cycles but couldn't give me good reason for it other than it being best practice. He unofficially left it up to me.

After a lot of thinking, ultimately my husband and I decided that our daughter's comfort and routine was the priority. We saw no merit in taking that away from her before she was ready, especially given the lack of sound reasoning from my RE, who acknowledged there was no point in even testing my prolactin levels because I was back to having regular cycles with evidence of ovulation. We proceeded with the FET and my doctor never inquired about whether I was still nursing.

Having said all that, I am not a nursing fanatic and did not plan to nurse my kid beyond the age of two, regardless of what she had in mind. Our decision to continue with the FET before waiting until she was weaned primarily had to do with me being 34 and wanting to try for a due date prior to turning 35. Other factors in our decision were that we had four remaining embryos, and knew that emotionally (and financially) we only had it in us for two more transfers. We wanted to give our little girl a sibling but we were also at peace with the possibility of it never happening.
We might have decided differently on the nurse/wean issue if we only had one embryo left, or if my 35th birthday coincided with when I was still our kiddo's primary food source and prolactin levels were higher.

The link below may also be worth a read, but bear in mind this is one of many bloggers who earned her medical degree through Google university. Ultimately it comes down to the question that if the transfer fails, would you constantly wonder if it had been because you were still nursing, and could you live with that uncertainty? My husband and I were okay with taking on that risk, but many, many other couples are not.

https://babydustdiaries.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/breastfeeding-through-fertility-treatments-ivf-and-fet/

OP, I would just focus on enjoying your kiddo. Turn your thoughts towards this when you are actually closer to when he is 16 months and then reassess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the different perspectives. Our LO is 9 months old, and I would like to go back for a FET when he's around 18 months. A lot can change between now and then. But if we hit 15 or 16 months and he's still nowhere near being done with his mama milk (a likely scenario), we may reach out to other clinics to explore our options. I'm glad to hear that at least 1 local doc is open to doing a FET without weaning.

Our embryos are not tested, so it makes me nervous that we may have had success with the only viable one of them all, and will need a fresh cycle for any additional children. I don't want my eggs to be any older than absolutely necessary by delaying the FET process for too long.

at 15-16 months they suckle out of habit and for comfort, you milk will be nowhere near the top 10 foods she consumes. That's the likely scenario, other stuff is your BF fantasies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP, I would just focus on enjoying your kiddo. Turn your thoughts towards this when you are actually closer to when he is 16 months and then reassess.

Thanks for your thoughtful response. Right now we feel a bit under the gun, as the timing of our FET will impact how much we put into our HSA for 2017, and that decision has to be made in the next 5 days.

[Anonymous]

OP, what did you decide?

[Anonymous]

Why does it matter how old you are at the time of the FET? I thought that only the embryo's age is impt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does it matter how old you are at the time of the FET? I thought that only the embryo's age is impt.

I think some rather not be pregnant after a certain age.

[Anonymous]

Well, at some point it becomes a question of what's more important. Nursing or having another child.

In 5 years, would you be glad you nursed well into toddlerhood, even though that meant you never had a 2nd child? Or would you rather wean a bit earlier than you'd like and know you gave it your best shot?

If I were you, I'd wean at a year and then do the FET.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, at some point it becomes a question of what's more important. Nursing or having another child.

In 5 years, would you be glad you nursed well into toddlerhood, even though that meant you never had a 2nd child? Or would you rather wean a bit earlier than you'd like and know you gave it your best shot?

If I were you, I'd wean at a year and then do the FET.

+1 That's a great way to look at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, what did you decide?

OP here. We are still nursing at 16 months and going strong. Teething toddler = lots of nursing time. My husband and I decided to go back to SG at the end of the summer to get my initial testing done, without weaning first. If everything looks good, we'll keep doing what we're doing and go for a transfer in late fall. If my lab results are not in the appropriate range, we'll start weaning and run everything again in a few months to see if weaning has a positive impact, still with the goal of starting the transfer process before the end of the year. Our infertility issues are entirely male factor (my husband has no sperm), this will be my 3rd child, and we have no good reason to be concerned with my body's ability to get pregnant. We decided that any risks from nursing (which are not well documented in the literature to start with) are worth it to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does it matter how old you are at the time of the FET? I thought that only the embryo's age is impt.

Age is a factor for me in the sense that I don't want to risk out of a home birth because I waited too long to get pregnant. It's not the right choice for everyone, but after a hospital birth and a birth center birth, I am ready to be home. The older you get, the riskier pregnancy and birth become. It's also a factor because if we transfer all our remaining frozen embryos without success and need to do another fresh cycle, my eggs and I will be even older for that fresh cycle. Our frosties are not tested, so we have no clue how many, if any, are even viable. And my husband and I want to be able to have some time after the kids graduate from college to pay off any of those pesky tuition bills before we retire. Our financial advisor has us maxing our retirement savings rather than diverting some of that money to college savings on the theory that you can borrow your way through college, but not retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't want to risk out of a home birth because I waited too long to get pregnant. It's not the right choice for everyone, but after a hospital birth and a birth center birth, I am ready to be home. The older you get, the riskier pregnancy and birth become. .

So doesn't a riskier pregnancy make a home birth a worse idea? Can't follow your reasoning but to each his own I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't want to risk out of a home birth because I waited too long to get pregnant. It's not the right choice for everyone, but after a hospital birth and a birth center birth, I am ready to be home. The older you get, the riskier pregnancy and birth become. .

So doesn't a riskier pregnancy make a home birth a worse idea? Can't follow your reasoning but to each his own I guess.

It does, which is why it is preferrably to be pregnant and deliver sooner, while still breastfeeding if at all possible, rather than later after breastfeeding until self-weaning that could be years from now.