Breastfeeding/Lactation Consultant

More here: http://www.kellymom.com/meds/birthcontrol.html

I was curious whether the NuvaRing resulted in lower estrogen blood levels in mom (compared to a combination pill), so I looked up some info...

For Alesse (one of the combination pills http://www.wyeth.com/content/ShowLabeling.asp?id=84 ), average serum concentrations of ethinyl estradiol are 62.0 ± 20.5 pg/mL at one day, 76.7 ± 29.9 pg/mL at 6 days and 82.3 ± 33.2 pg/mL at 21 days.

For NuvaRing ( http://www.nuvaring.com/authfiles/images/134_19329.pdf ), average serum concentrations of ethinyl estradiol are 19.1 ± 4.5 pg/mL at one week, 18.3 ± 4.3 pg/mL at two weeks and 17.6 ± 4.3 pg/mL at three weeks.

So it looks like the NuvaRing results in lower estrogen levels in mom's blood than if she were taking Alesse, but there is still a significant amount of estrogen released into mom's blood. One study showed that systemic exposure to estrogen (ethinyl estradiol) with NuvaRing was approximately 50% of that for a combined pill containing 30 ug ethinyl estradiol ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=11020137 ). In this study, systemic exposure to progestin (etonogestrel) was similar for the ring & pill.

In the NuvaRing prescribing info, it also says "women who are breast feeding should be advised not to use NuvaRing® but to use other forms of contraception
until the child is weaned."

Hope this helps!

They say no problem to nursing children, it is AAP approved - the biggest concern with estrogen appears to be the impact to milk supply.  

  http://www.kellymom.com/health/meds/birthcontrol.html#combo

you can also see more info on contraceptives and bf here (just go to the contraceptives section in medications forum under "guest")

http://neonatal.ama.ttuhsc.edu/lact/html/medications_forums.html