Is It #MomLife Or Is It A Vitamin D Deficiency?

Vitamin D is one of those things we all think we understand. We know it’s the “sunshine” vitamin, and that it’s good for your bones. We know you can get it from milk, supplements, and maybe a little time outside. But for many women, especially moms, vitamin D could be the solution to brain fogginess, exhaustion, feeling overstimulated — literally so much more than we realize.

In a recent post on the subreddit /Mommit, one mom shared that vitamin D “completely changed” her relationship with her kids. She explained that at age 32, with three kids ranging in age from 7 to newborn, she’s struggled with feeling tired, having headaches, losing her temper, and just generally feeling blah and not her best. While at the doctor requesting a sleep apnea study (she was so convinced this had to be the reason for feeling like shit), her doctor did a full bloodwork panel and found that she was “extremely deficient in vitamin D.” After starting a prescribed dosage amount, she felt like a brand new person within days.

And according to doctors, that makes a lot of sense.

How does vitamin D deficiency affect women?

“That mother's experience resonates with me because I encounter similar stories from women in my practice,” says Earl J. Campazzi, Jr., M.D., M.P.H. of Campazzi Concierge Medicine. He says that vitamin D deficiency, especially in postpartum and perimenopausal women, can often make them feel just blah all over with symptoms like:

• deep fatigue
• brain fog
• mood swings
• achy joints
• muscle weakness
• hair thinning

The tricky part, of course, is that those symptoms may not immediately raise red flags for moms and perimenopausal women who are used to feeling completely tapped out.

“The trouble for new moms is that every single one of these symptoms could also just be sleep deprivation and the grind of newborn care — so nobody thinks to look further. I’ve had patients come in after months, sometimes years, of being told that they’re just adjusting to motherhood,” Campazzi says.

What’s the link between vitamin D deficiency and perimenopause?

If you’re in perimenopause, says Campazzi, things can get even “murkier.”

He says that estrogen plays a role in how our bodies activate and use Vitamin D, “so as estrogen starts to dip, vitamin D status often slides down with it.” Now imagine all of the fatigue and mood shifts you’re already dealing with from hormonal changes piling in on this. Yikes.

“What surprises a lot of my patients is it's not just about feeling tired. Vitamin D acts almost like a hormone in the body,” Campazzi says. “You have receptors for it nearly everywhere, including the ovaries and uterus, and it has a direct hand in regulating estrogen and progesterone. So when your levels are low, you're not just worn out. Your hormonal balance may genuinely be off.”

What are the consequences of vitamin D deficiency?

Beyond the day-to-day symptoms, vitamin D deficiency can have some serious health repercussions. Explains Campazzi, “We see higher rates of osteoporosis, heart disease, autoimmune problems, and links to certain cancers and Type 2 diabetes.”

And for women during pregnancy and postpartum, low vitamin D levels have been linked to complications like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and postpartum depression (“which gets dismissed as ‘baby blues’ far too often in my opinion,” says Campazzi).

How can you make sure you’re getting enough vitamin D?

If you’re curious whether your vitamin D levels might be low, the first step is shockingly simple: ask your doctor for a blood test.

Campazzi says you’re specifically looking for a “25-hydroxyvitamin D level” test, and once you get the results, you’ll know what you’re dealing with. “For most postpartum and perimenopausal women, 2,000 to 4,000 IU daily is a reasonable maintenance range.”

But Campazzi also says he thinks more women should know that the “standard lab reference puts 30 ng/mL as the bottom of ‘normal’” — and there’s “real debate” about whether that level is actually good enough.

“A lot of functional and integrative medicine doctors, myself included, think levels between 50 and 80 ng/mL are where women actually start feeling like themselves again,” he says. “I've seen it in my own practice. A woman comes in at 33, technically normal on paper, and she's still exhausted and foggy. We get her up to 60, and it's a different story. If you're severely depleted, your doctor may put you on a higher loading dose for a few weeks before stepping down to maintenance.”

While you should get a test before you start supplementing, Campazzi does say that vitamin D is one of the gentler supplements. He says real toxicity takes a sustained daily intake above 10,000 IU in most people, and at the doses you can get over-the-counter, that risk is minimal. But because it’s fat-soluble and builds up over time, he highly recommends talking to your doctor first.

Food-wise, Campazzi also recommends making sure your diet has a good mix of these:

• salmon
• sardines
• egg yolks
• fortified milk
• orange juice

“But I’ve never seen diet alone pull someone out of a real deficiency,” he adds. “Think of it as a backup, not the main strategy.”

Can you get more vitamin D from being in the sun?

Everyone’s heard the idea that we all just need to be in the sun more for vitamin D, but it’s not always that easy.

While Campazzi acknowledges that your skin makes vitamin D3 when it’s exposed to UVB rays, the catch is that those rays aren’t available for months at a time in some locations and regions. “Factor in gray skies, office jobs, and the reality of chasing kids indoors, and most women are running a winter deficit without knowing it,” he says.

Campazzi also says there is medical advice in direct conflict about sun exposure for health — just ask your dermatologist.

You should absolutely use sun protection, but Campazzi also recommends trying to get about “10 to 20 minutes of midday sun on your arms and legs a few times a week” during warmer months. The rest of the time, cover up and use sun protection. “It's a small, manageable dose that supports your vitamin D without meaningfully raising your skin cancer risk. In winter, or if you have darker skin that needs more UVB to do the same job, take supplements. That's what they're there for.”

Above all, Campazzi says that if you’re a mom who has spent months feeling wiped out, blah, and exhausted, please get a blood test.

“Vitamin D deficiency is incredibly common in women at these stages, it takes almost no effort to diagnose, and it responds well to treatment. You don't have to just power through it,” he says. “That mom's story, thinking she needed medication for something serious only to find out it was a vitamin D deficiency all along, is practically a textbook version of what I see in my office. The good news is that her ‘night and day’ difference after supplementing is not unusual at all. That's what proper treatment looks like.”

In other words, you might not have to just “power through it” after all.