Calcium d-glucarate while breastfeeding?

[Lexie]

So we saw the pediatric naturopath yesterday. Now, I have endometriosis, so I'm estrogen dominant.

I've never had my actual estrogen level tested, but based on what I've noticed about myself, my estrogen is probably at least fairly high usually. I used to take 1g of vitex upon rising with a glass of water. This was what my naturopath prescribed to help raise my progesterone. If I take it religiously, I have no PMS, the pain can be harsh, but it's at least bearable, I don't get the migraines and fatigue, and the bleeding is normal--bleeding without it is insanely heavy, like an overnight absorbency pad every 2 hours would be pushing it. Sometimes I would just sit on the toilet for a while so as not to use as many pads. I know...TMI...sorry. :blush:

Okay, so when I was pregnant, in the first trimester, I did stop taking vitex for about a week and I felt absolutely horrendous. My naturopath never said I needed to stop it, and I know others have used it, so I simply started taking it again, and every ill feeling went away. Obviously, I have a problem with progesterone production for some reason. Fast forward to just after my baby was born. I had to stop taking it because it was affecting my milk supply to the point where even fenugreek wasn't enough to counter it. I haven't taken it since, so my hormones are on their own now.

We've been breastfeeding all this time. My girl is just about 9 months now. Within the last month, I noticed some cervical fluid returning. I assume my body is building up to having periods again. At the same time, my girl's breasts seem to have gotten a little...fleshy. Now, thinking back on myself, I was concerned, but it's so hard to really remember my own body as a child. I certainly won't remember myself at 9 months. Anyway, the naturopath noticed her breasts without me calling attention to them. She said my girl is getting too much estrogen through my milk. She recommended that I take calcium d-glucarate for it as it metabolizes excess estrogen.

Looking it up online, no one seems to use the word metabolize though they do say it somehow lowers estrogen levels. If it really does simply metabolize it, that would probably be fine, but if it's actually going to just flush it out of my body, I don't see why the estrogen wouldn't end up in my milk too. I don't want to make a bad situation worse, you know what I mean?

Has anyone else had experience with this supplement? Especially while breastfeeding. It seems very useful for my condition--though I'd probably want to take my vitex too since I've read it lowers progesterone as well which I really don't need. :eek: On the other hand, I read from one lady with high estrogen that the effect on her estrogen was much greater than the effect on her progesterone.

I suppose I can always email my naturopath about it, see what he has to say. At least I know him. This naturopath is new to me.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

This problem is totally new to me.

I have no advice.

The only comment I can make is that in the six years coming up to menopause, I started to have flooding, which is supposedly very common. I was told that I also had endometriosis, but had never done anything about it.

Because of flooding, my grandmother, mother and sister all had hysterectomies.

I wanted to try a different approach, so went on a liver cleansing diet, becasue blood clotting is controlled to a degree, by the liver. The diet was similar to Dr Cabot's, but not as restrictive. Within three months my periods were back to normal. I had to do that twice again, and try to keep my nutrition more liver friendly.

I got there without having to resort to a surgeon's scalpel.

My sister's hysterectomy resulted in serious complications, and a reaction to the anaesthetic. So I wish she'd been able to try that before her op, but that was quite some time before I had the problem...

useless information...

[Lexie]

Not really useless. The liver cleanse I've noticed mentioned often enough that I'm sure it does work. I never delved deep enough into it, so I never knew about a liver-friendly diet. Was good to know that. I do have a good list of herbs for the liver from my naturopath. He had me take them when my girl's bilirubin started rising and the results were nothing short of amazing. The pediatrician was the useless one--told me to switch her to formula, like that makes any sense.

The main factor in endometriosis is estrogen dominance. A liver and gut cleanse, specifically according to Chinese herbalists, 'cure' it at least temporarily--and by that I mean for 20+ years if there isn't any sort of maintenance, like diet. Of course, menopause also cures it for obvious reasons. Perhaps I should just get a liver tonic again and go from there.

There were other problems addressed and funny enough I was already making it onto the right path before seeing her. She believes I need a 'high dose' probiotic with 40-50 billion cells. She wants my girl on probiotics too, but one specifically for children. She also wants me to take something to combat yeast, like caprylic acid--which happens to be in the virgin coconut oil we're supplementing with now. It's just the calcium d-glucarate that worries me because I don't know how it works and you know how the university of google can be so unreliable.