Impacts of breastfeeding on your body

[Indigopearl]

I have been breastfeeding my LO longer than I ever expected to and at 20 months old he is showing no signs of stopping.

I am however increasingly feeling really fatigued and getting a lot of body aches as well as hot flushes at night.

Does anyone know if this could be caused by breastfeeding? I read that breastfeeding lowers oestrogen levels which then trigger symptoms like peri menopause. Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

If I knew that stopping breastfeeding would definitely help these things I would stop now but I am loathed to stop before LO is ready is this is not the cause.

I am 40 so it is possible I have peri menopause and it is not caused by breastfeeding. Has anyone found that stopping breastfeeding has cured these symptoms? Alternatively does anyone know of any supplements I could take whilst breastfeeding which might help?

I asked the GP but they were pretty useless and just told me they would investigate further when I stop breastfeeding if the symptoms persist.

If you're not taking one already, I'd take a good supplement with enough iron and calcium.

Could it just be that you're returning to fertility though?

No expert but breastfeeding made me have hot flushes at night (I’m only 29) and now I’ve recently stopped they seem to have eased off. I generally feel better in myself physically too.
But to be clear I didn’t really enjoy breastfeeding and only did it for 4 months so that may be part of it psychologically
Seven seas do a nursing vitamin pack too

Breast milk is low in iron but when breastfeeding I always found I am needed an iron supplement. Try something like Spatone or Floradix for a few weeks and see if that helps

I got really bad vaginal dryness with breastfeeding and once I stopped all went back to normal.