Short Luteal Phase while Breastfeeding

[Jeana Jones]

I was able to chart the return of my fertility after my daughter's birth.  I had 21 months of amenorrhea, and I have ovulated three times since she was born, and all three times, my luteal phase has been 8 days.  I received advice from elsewhere to use Vitex and Vitamin B6 and that maybe I shouldn't use Vitex while breastfeeding.  Neither of those sounds like a great idea to me.

 

I'm not really excited about supplements, hence why I hang out here.  One place I was reading, people were talking about taking 100 mg B6 per day.  That's 50 times the RDA and not anything like what you could get from food.  When I look at estimates of how much B6 I'm getting, I'm getting about the RDA but not much more, and depending on what vegetables I eat on a given day, I may or may not get enough.

 

The two food places I have heard of getting lots of B6 are yellowfin tuna and bananas.  I don't particularly like bananas, but I'd eat them if I was convinced they would do me good.  I generally avoid yellowfin tuna because of its potential to be heavily contaminated, but we do have sushi once a week, and it wouldn't be hard to add it in.  I'm wondering if it would be worth it to get the B6 to have it once a week or even every once in a while.

 

I'm also wondering more on how this all works.  One place I read said that B6 lowers prolactin, and I'm really not wanting to do anything that is going to interfere with breastfeeding... well... besides getting pregnant one of these months.  I just want to accept what my body naturally needs to do right now.  If my body is not fully fertile because it is following what it was designed to do to prevent having another baby yet, I want to accept that, but if I am deficient in something, I'd like to fix that.

 

I'm getting into fermentation more.  Are fermented things generally higher in B vitamins including B6?  Do you know of any other foods really high in B6 for a normal serving?  Do you know of any other ways to safely lengthen the luteal phase while breastfeeding?  Do you know why a lot of women experience short luteal phases when their fertility first returns after childbirth?

[Yvonne LV]

The first few cycles that return usually have short luteal phase because your body is not ready to have another baby at this time.  Keep eating well and regularly and the lp will return to a normal length soon enough.   Mine take about 5 cycles to get out to a 10-12 day lp.

[Jeana Jones]

I know that it is common to have short luteal phases.  I'm just trying to get more details.  Why does ovulation and menstruation come back before a woman's body is ready to have a baby again?  What is the difference between women who are immediately fertile and those who have a number of "infertile" cycles?  Why would excessive amounts of B6 change your body's readiness to have another baby?  Does that mean that you were deficient, or does the B6 override a protective mechanism that your body has put in place?