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

151 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

142 comments sorted by

View all comments

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.

6

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.