St John's Wort - does anyone know if it's okay to take it while bfing?

[Olihan]

Saw GP today about my terrible PMT and she suggested trying St John's Wort for a couple of months to see if it helps.

I'm still feeding 22mo ds2 morning and night but it didn't occur to me to ask if the St John's was safe.

Kellymom is ambiguous and LactMed has nothing on it at all.

Has anyone on here had any experience? Do I risk it or go back and ask for the ADs which were her other suggestion?

there's a bit of info here but again a bit ambiguous. I'm currently on Sertraline (zoloft) and breastfeeding dd(2.5) every few days, was breastfeeding twice a day when I started. My main worry with St john's wort is that it didn't really work for me when I have taken it in the past, did the doctor recommend a dose or anything? I think if you would benefit from AD's then go for it, I put it off for ages and when I did finally start takng them, I wished I had ages ago.

I'm starting to lean that way, tbh. I'm not depressed, all the symptoms occur within about 10 days of my period starting and the rest of the month I'm fine (I've had depression in the past so I know what to look for) but apparently SSRIs have pretty good evidence for helping with PMT when they're taken for just the days of the month that they're needed.

It seemed a bit extreme to take ADs for PMT when the GP suggested it but if it's that or something that could possibly be iffy with bfing I think I'd rather go for them and look into alternatives when ds2 weans.

Zoloft is one of the ADs Hale says is best while bfing so I may ask her about that specifically.

How bizarre, I was going to start a thread asking the very same thing.

My PMT has recently made a comeback after DS2 and is biting me in the arse every month once more. SJW definitely took the edge off it before, although I took it every day, not just on my growly days.

I shall ring my GP today and post result.

Ooh, thanks BS.

AFAIK, she meant me to take SJW every day, but the ADs don;t have the right effect on PMT if you take them all the time.

I spoke to our nurse practitioner who suggested evening primrose oil. I think that would be on a par with using a kids watering can to put out a bush fire, tbh.

'growly' days - I like that .

Have a look at this site. It may not be your thing especially if you feel you need proper medication, but I used a lot of her advice (but bought seperate supplements - much cheaper than her rip off prices!) and it did improve things markedly for me.

Olihan, I did try but the doctors is shut today ! The lady at the call centre asked if it was urgent, I was tempted to say, well if I was calling in two weeks' time it would be...

Will try again tomorrow.

CLOSED? how dare they?

Yes bloody cheek.

... and I forgot to phone today

That reminds me, Omega 3 can be helpful too. I got very down when pg and took it. I found it helped although it could have just been the placebo effect - who cares. You can definitely take it, there is a special pg one, although it costs an arm and a leg.

LOL, I do that constantly!

The GP talked about something they trialled when the placebo worked just as well and I did think she could just write me a script for milk of magnesia, tell me it worked a treat and send me home if it was that easy .

I hadn't thought of Omega 3 - at least that's definitely okay to bf with!