Thursday, September 04, 2008

Prolactin Level While Nursing

(Normal value ranges may vary slightly among different laboratories)

I got a call from my endo this morning. My prolactin level is 4.9. I guess this explains the lactation problem. My (pre-pregnancy) prolactin was 5.2 last year. I am amazed that I am producing any milk right now. I am so glad I had this checked out. At least now I know what my daughter's low weight is caused by; there is no doubt that she is not getting enough breastmilk. The doctor said this is "almost surely" due to my pituitary condition, and there is nothing I can do to increase my prolactin level. It is interesting to note that I did not have a pituitary condition (that I knew of) before I had Danielle. I asked if I needed to come in and discuss this further with him, but his nurse said he had no appointment available until November.

I feel like it's futile to try and continue nursing Danielle. I will feed her what little I can, but since she is weaning naturally, I expect I will mostly likely stop altogether soon. The bottle is certainly doing a better job than I can right now. I plan on going in for my annual MRI some time this month.