Take precaution with Fenugreek

Smonet

I feel obligated to post this. I wish I had read a post like this before I started Fenugreek. Most of you are aware of the benefits to lactating mothers when using Fenugreek.

DH and I took a breastfeeding class from a nurse at our hospital and she reccomended all of us start Fenugreek as soon as we got home with our LOs. I did not take her advice on this.

About 5.5 months into BF I came down with a stomach bug and my supply dropped. My breasts were empty, I was pumping nothing and LO was crying at the breast. I remembered the Fenugreek tip and combined it with all the other great advice from this board. I power pumped 1-2 times per day, drank an excessive amount of water, nursed LO whenever I was home, as much as he would, drank Mother's Milk Tea, and took Fenugreek (4 610mg pills 3 x per day) until I smelled like maple syrup (it took 5 days) then I cut back to 3 pills 3 x per day for the next couple of weeks.

I had an out of town trip for work January 17th, so I figured I'd keep taking them during my weekend trip and stop when I got home. Just in case a weekend of pumping only would affect my supply.

The night of January 16th I noticed a rash all over my legs and feet. It turned out to be petechia. If you don't know what that is, it is the hemorrhaging of the blood vessels under the skin. It is usually caused by an underlying condition (all of which sound really scary). I went into the ER that night so they could run a ton of scary blood tests, only to (positively) find my labs to be fine. They referred me to my GP. I cancelled my work trip and headed into the GP. She was stumped as well.

Later that day her nurse called back to let me know that based on the list of vitamins and supplements I was taking, she found Fenugreek to be documented to cause blood thinning issues including Petechia.

I'm sure this is rare, and as happy as I am that Fenugreek may have salvaged my milk supply, I learned my lesson on herbal supplements.

I just wanted to share, so you all have been warned about a possible, scary side effect of the herb. I know it is usually safe-however none of the female Dr.s I saw in the ER or my GP had heard of it (strange-they are all mothers).

I hope my supply stays up, because I'm thinking I won't experiment with it again.