Breast Feeding & Intercourse Pain - How Are They Linked?

Some breastfeeding women experienced intercourse pain might not aware that her hormone productions and monthly menstrual cycle were affected by breastfeeding. In fact, breastfeeding can suppress monthly menstrual cycle by overproducting prolactin (for milk production) and underproducing other hormones such as estrogen and progesterone (regulating menstrual cycle). In some severe cases, few breastfeeding women would experiencing symptoms similar to menopause due to depletion of estrogen. 

Like bad symptoms of menopause, breastfeeding women might suffer a string of symptoms such as: night sweats, hot flashes, fatigue, mood swings, low sex drive, insomnia, and vaginal dryness. Lacking proper vaginal lubricant can irriated vaginal linning during sex resulting in intercourse pain.

Different OBGY have different approaches to solve this problem. Some would recommend low dose of estrogen birth control pills. Other would prescribed estrogen cream.

If the intercourse pain or vaginal dryness is not severe, simply apply more lubricants or longer foreplay to stimulate for more natural lubricantion. If the estogen level is really low or the symptoms are severe, ask your doctors to see if you can take natural estrogen balancing herbs such as Dong Quai and Black Cohosh to help you relieve the symptoms.