TTC while breastfeeding?

[u/Difficult-Basil3606]

Does breastfeeding make TTC harder? My son is 13 months and is a little boob barnacle. He rarely takes solids and I’m struggling with weaning him. He maybe latches at night for less than 5 minutes 1-2x between 10pm and 5am and then frequent feeds during the day.

My periods came back in April and since then my cycles have been 41, 42, and 43 days. I don’t track much outside of apps and my ultrahuman ring, and because I’ve been told ovulation can be delayed we try every day from the first day my period ends until my cycle starts up again.

I’m currently on CD42 and my pregnancy test was negative. The pharmacist told me that pregnancy wasn’t likely while breastfeeding and that I’m either having periods and not ovulating at all, ovulating very close to when my period starts, or my prolactin levels are too high to conceive.

I’m just looking for some advice. We’ve been trying for 5 cycles now.

Thank you!

[u/DaisyBuckitten]

You said you don’t track, but maybe you should just do some simple opks? At least get an idea of where you’re at. That way you can see your luteal phase length. Mine was 10 days until I finally night weaned and now it’s 13 days. My prolactin levels must have been too high to allow progesterone to rise enough for pregnancy to happen. I had 1 cp in April, and I’m assuming one of the contributing factors was insufficient progesterone.

I have a friend who is due this month with her second and she’s still breastfeeding her first. There are plenty of women who can conceive while breastfeeding, but also many who can’t. It’s really difficult to say which boat you’re in, but identifying how long your luteal phase is could give you a decent insight to how things are going with your hormones.