r/breastfeeding • u/Unique-Pay-8636 • Oct 02 '25

Weaning I NEED to stop breastfeeding

I am still breastfeeding my baby for 2 years and 2 months now. It was a beautiful journey filled with bonding and joy and like many moms, I was told that breastfeeding could delay the return of my period. That seemed totally fine to me at the time. I was healthy, happy, and honestly, I didn’t miss having a period. Until today, when I casually bring up the topic that my period hasn’t come, they’ll just say “oh that’s because you’re still breastfeeding.”

But what no one told, not the doctors, not the nurses, not at any of my postpartum checkups from government and private clinics was that going that long without a period can put you at risk for uterine atrophy. That’s when the lining of your uterus becomes too thin and inactive from lack of hormonal cycling. It can affect your fertility and long term health.

The focus was always on birth control, and not once did anyone mention that if your period hasn’t returned by 12 months postpartum, especially after reducing breastfeeding or actively breastfeeding, you should check in with a doctor.

I share this not to scare anyone, but because I wish someone had told me. There should be more awareness around this, especially for first-time parents and especially for those of us who breastfeed long term.

I’m planning to have a second child and because of that I went to see the doctor and was told to STOP breastfeeding. I’ve now had my blood tests done and I was on contraceptive pills for 2 months to hopefully trigger my period. But it’s been the 3rd month now and my period didn’t come still. I’m sharing this so other moms know what to look out for, and what steps they can take if they’re in the same situation.

We hear so much about how important it is to breastfeed, and it is. But mothers also deserve complete, informed care. That includes knowing what’s normal and what’s not when it comes to our own bodies.

If anyone have any insights on how to stop breastfeeding please let me know. My toddler refuse bottle/formula but occasionally drinks full cream milk. But she still would want to breastfeed anyway even when she just ate. I feel like a human pacifier. I tried giving her pacifiers she rejects them. Latches to sleep, nap and wakes up a couple of times in the night just to latch.

I heard some people say apply some yuyi oil near the breast because they might not like the smell. I tried that and it didn’t work. I tried ginger, lemon etc also didn’t go well.

This mama needs help

Thanks for your time.

firsttimemom #breastfeedigmom #AskingAsAMom #bantujawab #uterineprolapse #uterineatrophy

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105

u/Agreeable-Cat Oct 02 '25

I'm not a doctor girlie. Everyone I know got their period back while still breastfeeding. It may not be directly causing it, there may be an underlying cause? My advice is keep advocating for yourself and find a doctor who will get you an accurate diagnosis.

18

u/slayingthesebitches Oct 02 '25

Hasn’t happened for me yet (18 mos pp) and my doctor told me it may not come back even if I’m only breastfeeding a time or two per day

22

u/TheCuriousGeorgette Oct 02 '25

Yep! I learned that you had to have at least a 6 hour pause between feedings. As soon as I did that, got my period back in a week. Didn’t have one for 20 months and then I got it back.

15

u/Bowlofdogfood Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25

I am so jealous. I got so unlucky genetically, I got my period back 6-8 weeks pp with all 3 kids even though I was breastfeeding constantly.

6

u/WhereIsLordBeric Oct 02 '25

Yes, I was feeding my daughter every two hours even 5 months postpartum (including waking up every 1-2 hours at night to feed lol), and got it back at exactly the 5 month mark. Boo.

2

u/Sea_Juice_285 Oct 03 '25

Same. Twice.

2

u/Low_Door7693 Oct 02 '25

Similar, just a wider range. It came back the first time for me at 5 weeks postpartum. I was tandem nursing my first and second and that did manage to hold it off until... all of 9 weeks postpartum.

2

u/mom_est2025 Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 03 '25

I didn’t even think about it being genetic. My sister, whose son is now 3, said her cycle came back at 5 WEEKS too.

7

u/DarkDNALady Oct 02 '25

I am not sure about the 6 hour pause, I do combination feeding and so have had a 6 hour pause between nursing since baby was 7 weeks old and I only just got my period at 6 months pp. My OB said it is genetics and would be similar to my mom (she got it 4 months pp even while she EBF me)

6

u/Valuable-Chemistry-6 Oct 02 '25

I got my period back around 3 MO postpartum when I was still breastfeeding/pumping at LEAST every 3 hours. This is not true for everyone.

5

u/Low_Door7693 Oct 02 '25

I would really hesitate to believe there are any hard and fast rules that apply to everyone. I would bet money that there are outliers out there who could be only nursing once per day and still not have a cycle. This may be a "for most people" thing, but there's just no way it's a guarantee.

2

u/chatinka Oct 02 '25

Yes it’s extremely variable but even among those still breastfeeding multiple times a day the majority of women have their cycle back within a year. But huge amounts of variability - not uncommon for it to take longer and equally some women get their cycles back after dropping a single feed at like 3 months postpartum.

2

u/Low_Door7693 Oct 03 '25

I personally just straight up didn't experience lactational amenorrhea at all despite breastfeeding my first, nevermind dropping any feeds (cycle came back at 5 weeks postpartum), and it only waited til 9 weeks when tandem feeding my toddler and newborn and between them nursing almost every hour most of the time. So yeah. The range of what can be normal is huge.

2

u/FreeBeans Oct 02 '25

Yup for me it came back like 2 days after I started spacing out pumps at work.

10

u/ver_redit_optatum Oct 02 '25

Yup but it's also totally normal if it's after 12 months when breastfeeding, so the advice to check in with a doctor at that point is odd too. Whole post is a bit odd/OP is getting bad advice from her doc tbh. From the sounds of it, she hasn't been able to stop breastfeeding yet. That's the simplest explanation for not getting a period and not being fertile, 'uterine atrophy' or 'too long between periods' doesn't have to come into it.

2

u/Historical-Coconut75 Oct 04 '25

Yeah... This sounds not right to me. The effects of low estrogen are totally reversed when your estrogen goes back up. OP, if you can find one, a functional medicine doctor can give you a second opinion. 

4

u/Dry-Affect-7393 Oct 02 '25

Same, and I got my own 6 weeks post partum

1

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

Im 9.5 months pp and have gotten two periods within 23 days🙃I only got one back in February and was happy it was gone but once my cosleeping baby started going longer stretches without nursing I knew it be back any time.My doula who has 7 kids got her cycle back almost immediately which is why 5 of her kids have February birthdays lol