Domperidone, hormones and fun stuff like that

This post was originally published at Get Fit Chicks. It may refer to posts on Get Fit Chicks that no longer exist. Please email me if you run into any of those and I will break the links. More information about the reposting is available here

So I was talking to Stacey and after our conversation, I figured it was time to address the ever so complicated issue of hormones.

After J was born, I lost weight steadily. And then my milk production almost stopped. There were all kinds of reasons for it, but the result was that I was put on domperidone to stimulate lactation. Domperidone might sound like fancy champagne, but it’s not.

Domperidone is prescribed off label in Canada for lactation and because of this, the side effects are either not known or not disclosed by pharmacists. My pharmacist had never dispensed domperidone for lactation so she was quite interested in how well it worked and whatever else happened to me.

So I had no idea that I was going to get increasingly frustrated as the weeks went by. I was on domperidone for about six months. In that time, I think I lost maybe two pounds. And nothing else in my life had changed. I was still watching what I ate and if anything, my physical activity increased. I was frustrated because of the plateau, especially because the weight loss had been good and steady before. My doctor (my GP, not the doctor at the breastfeeding clinic) couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t losing weight. It was not fun.

And then the time came to stop taking domperidone. And I lost eight pounds the first week. And then we were out with some friends and somehow we got talking about domperidone. And R had been on it as well and she asked how my weight was…turns out the problem was probably the drug, not anything I was or wasn’t doing. After that I talked to a few more friends at my mom and baby group and they had the same thing – either a plateau OR weight gain.

Once I stopped taking domperidone, I still had to contend with my hormones being out of whack…After a bunch of blood tests, an ultrasound and countless birth control pill adjustments, I feel like maybe they’re finally calmed down and sorted out and maybe now the weight will start to come off steadily again…we’ll see…those hormones, they certainly make a difference in whether or not the weight comes, goes or just stays put.