So I have been thinking about menstruation and the raw food diet again recently (mainly through re-reading this article often linked in this forum: [www.waldorfhomeschoolers.com]) and I'd like to conduct a little survey if people don't mind answering some personal questions. It is just that I am fascinated by this topic, but don't know anyone personally who I could ask....


If you have stopped getting your period (or the duration and/or heaviness has significantly decreased)...

What kind of raw diet are you on? ie what percentage raw; high carb, low fat?

More specifically, what is your typical daily fat intake? amount and source? (ie is it just from fatty fruits like avocado or do you include nuts or seeds?

Do you use condiments? ie salt, spices, a version of soy sauce, vinegar, etc?

Do you exercise regularly? How much?

What is your body shape like? Do you know your percentage of body fat? Did you lose a lot of weight before your period stopped?

How long were you following your current diet before you stopped menstruating?

Did your period ever come back? Did you ever go to the doctor and get "checked out"?

Anything else?

Again, I apologize for the intimate nature of these questions, but anytime I look this stuff up all I find is either stuff about anorexia or how I should be so excited to bleed once a month and that I must have some repression about my sexuality if I'm not.

Thanks!
anne

I have stopped getting my period.
I eat mostly fruit, some leafy greens here in there, and only one avocado per week
I eat very low fat
I do not use condiments or salt or anything of that nature
I exercise here and there, not nearly enough, I do yoga, walk, and jog sometimes
My body shape is curvy, a little filled, I am 5'1. I have about 25 more # to loose, but yes I lost some right before I lost my period.
It's hard to say how long I was following this diet before I lost my period. When I was raw (high fat) I still had my period. It seems when I eat mostly fruit, it disapears, always.
A couple years ago when I first ate raw I stopped getting my period. I went to the OBYM and got checked out. He told me I was really healthy and couldn't figure it out, it was probably just diet change. Then he prescribed me birth control. Weirdo. hehe hope this helps : )

If you have stopped getting your period (or the duration and/or heaviness has significantly decreased)...

"I started on a high raw diet in June and I have always been irregular and very heavy. When I went 100% I became regular and light with it ending shorter, but I still get it."

What kind of raw diet are you on? ie what percentage raw; high carb, low fat?

"I am a 100% now for 2 months"

More specifically, what is your typical daily fat intake? amount and source? (ie is it just from fatty fruits like avocado or do you include nuts or seeds?

"Since I feel like I still need that empty feeling filled I eat a lot of fatty foods still. I just crave avocado's, coconuts, dates, oils, olives etc."

Do you use condiments? ie salt, spices, a version of soy sauce, vinegar, etc?

"I do use salt, spices, nama shoyu, and raw vinegar in all my salads, I know I must slow down it's just so tasty"

Do you exercise regularly? How much?

"I exercise 6 days a week; dumbbells, walking, and stairmaster"

What is your body shape like? Do you know your percentage of body fat? Did you lose a lot of weight before your period stopped?

"I lost 16 pounds in 4 months and I don't want to lose anymore, I just want to be healthy."

How long were you following your current diet before you stopped menstruating?

"I'm not sure it will stop, it's hard to believe even though others are experiencing this. I notice people who eat a lot of fruit on here say it has stopped for them. I eat a lot of leafy greens and fats, and not enough fruit"

Did your period ever come back? Did you ever go to the doctor and get "checked out"?

"When it stops I might just celebrate!!!!!"

Thanks for the info. It is great to hear from people who don't think that wondering about eliminating menstruation means you have a mental disorder.

Every raw food forum really needs a "women's only" subforum for these types of questions, don't they?

I love what high raw does for mine, it's short and easy, if I'm not eating right I loose so much blood I start to worry about fainting.

when i take iron supplements my period is heavier. it is otherwise light and painless.

Fruitarian,

I have a very light day period

Menstruation is a disease.

"Menstruation is a disease."

this is a belief statement. if it's what you believe then your period WILL be disease-like for you.
when i was a teenager i got the worst cramps, pain and nausea, i wanted to die one day every month. the only "cure" for me was to change my attitude towards myself and my sexuality.
now i think of menstruation as a gift. i don't behave hatefully towards my body and it doesn't behave hatefully towards me.

this comes up here a LOT and i'll say what i always say.
brian clement had interesting things to tell me about this. ultimately what he said was that losing your period would possibly be healthy if you were eating a perfectly clean diet (all organic, grown in a clean environment), drinking and bathing in pure water, not putting chemicals (make-up, body products, etc) on your skin, eating %100 raw and breathing clean air consistently for over 7 years. before that time it's a sign of imbalance.

i realize that it's easier to talk yourself into thinking menstrual cessation is healthy than it is to refine your diet and make better friends with your body but who said this is an easy path to begin with?

coco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> believe then your period WILL be disease-like for
> you.

doesn't sound like suvine has a disease-like experience

> this comes up here a LOT and i'll say what i
> always say.
> brian clement had interesting things to tell me
> about this. ultimately what he said was that
> losing your period would possibly be healthy if
> you were eating a perfectly clean diet (all
> organic, grown in a clean environment), drinking
> and bathing in pure water, not putting chemicals
> (make-up, body products, etc) on your skin, eating
> %100 raw and breathing clean air consistently for
> over 7 years. before that time it's a sign of
> imbalance.

that doesn't make sense, but BC often doesn't make sense.

>
> i realize that it's easier to talk yourself into
> thinking menstrual cessation is healthy than it is
> to refine your diet and make better friends with
> your body but who said this is an easy path to
> begin with?

but you just said above with a refined diet menses is good and healthy!

i'm not criticizing or arguing, just seems like you're contradicting yourself and attached to something due to personal experience. nobody is saying menses is bad here

although you're right, there is often a poor relationship with body in this culture, i don't see that here.

Coco makes sense to me : in our culture, healthy women have normal menstruation and we all know what that means. Even pms is considered normal.

So when a woman doesn't menstruate in our culture, docs can usually find a cause for it and medicate or operate it back into existence or just provide an explanation for it.

Menstruation may be a disease, but women who feel healthy in our culture do it anyway.

Women who are very, very healthy with clean bodies may not bleed monthly but for very different reasons than average amenorrheic women in our culture. That's why women are so confused hearing that raw vegan women 'lose' their periods - we're used to hearing that only very fit athletes and sick people lose their periods.
When I was an athlete, people spoke of it as too masculine, too many male hormones, or not enough female hormones; so it had strong, negative connotations. I remember worrying about becoming too thin then as I didn't want to be amenorrheic.

Mine has gotten lighter and lighter, but I've only been fully raw 9 months, so not that long.

I do high carb/low fat. I have gone over 7 out of the 9 months eating little to no overt fats at all. For several weeks I ate way too much fat (from avocado) and did notice a slight increase in flow during that time.

I do not use condiments. I do exercise regularly - run 3-4 miles, about 4-5 times a wk, and do a little strength training when I can.

I only started running almost 3 months ago, I think. I did notice a bigger decrease of flow and symptoms, after I started running.

My body shape - small but still have probably 10 lbs to lose. My scale says I'm 14% body fat but I know it's way off. I'm guessing I'm closer to 20-21%

To me, menstruation is just a thing - neither good nor bad. I'm just thankful I don't have horrible extreme pain like some women do. Honestly, the exercise/running is what I think made the biggest significant change in the amount of flow, although switching to low fat raw helped too.

Sarah
[goingbananasblog.com]

Coco,

I am tremendously glad that changing your attitude lifted the pain you experienced with menstruation, but that did not work for me. In fact, because for nearly 20 years I could not find the cause of my pain I was left to believe that if I only had a "better attitude" I would not suffer so much. This thinking was actually a roadblock to finding solutions that work - addressing the dominance of estrogen in my body caused by xenoestrogens and the move to a healthier diet. What works for one person doesn't always work for another - we all know that there can be many causes for similar symptoms. For the last three months, I have been able to menstruate without having to take handfuls of painkillers... and if my period gets lighter I will be nothing but truly ecstatic. And why would thinking cessation could be a healthy thing be opposed to adopting a healthier diet or listening to your body? It seems like from the other testimonials they go hand in hand.

Thanks again everyone - you're really helping me counteract years of this culture telling me that loss of a period could never be healthy under any circumstances.

"that doesn't make sense, but BC often doesn't make sense."
i've seen brian speak on many occasions and he is brilliant. he makes the MOST sense as far as i can tell and i've been to events with most of the "big names" in raw.
"nobody is saying menses is bad here"
that is exactly what is being said and what i'm responding too. calling menstruation a disease is saying that it is, and always is, BAD.
"although you're right, there is often a poor relationship with body in this culture, i don't see that here."
over the years that i have been participating in this forum i have seen a tremendous number of people with eating disorders post here. so. many. i do see that on this forum. there are some major body image issues that come up here again and again and are often accompanied by menstrual cessatios but too often those symptom of imbalance are written off as detox, etc. hormones play a tremendous role in good health (see annex's post above) and i think it's important to heed the signs the body gives you and not rely on guesswork in some instances. surely a major change like losing one's period deserves a bit more attention than a waldorf article and some conjecture.
my point being that many women dislike their period and are more than willing to believe that losing it entirely is a good thing then they are to truly examine that and see if it is in fact so. a woman who is happy about not menstruating isn't very likely to make the effort to start again even if that's the healthy thing for her. i'm saying the idea that not having one's period being a good thing should be based on more than just being happy about NOT having it anymore.

please keep in mind that i'm all about the natural way and listening to your own body and smashing preconceived notions. heck, i gave birth to both of my children unassisted, the second one entirely alone. but i Researched the hell out of it first!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2007 02:36PM by coco.

I have to agree with coco about the caution around the cessation of menstruation (or really the cessation of the bleeding or hemorrhaging, as the uterine lining can be absorbed without hemorrhaging). It can be a state of great health, but it can also be a state of sickness. If a person has an unhealthy diet (say anorexic), or is underweight (by standard BMI metrics), or is not ovulating, then the loss of the hemorrhaging is not a sign of great health, but a sign of increased weakness. On the other hand, if the diet is excellent, and the body weight is normal, the person is feeling fit and healthy, ovulation is occurring, and all hemorrhaging has stopped, this is a sign of excellent health.

Regardless of where one's hemorrhaging is, I see acceptance of where one is in their process as an excellent beginning place to make moves to where one wants to be.

"ovulation is occurring"

exactly, this is a key element that deserves some attention. making sure that the cycle is otherwise normal and healthy is a sure way to evaluate this occurance.

how can you be sure you are ovulating without hemmorrhaging?

If you want to see if you are ovulating, you can buy ovulation predictor kits at the pharmacy. It's a test that detects the surge of luteinizing hormone in your urine which normally occurs 24-36 hours before ovulation.

There are fertility awareness websites like FertilityFriend where you chart your body temperature and cervical mucus to determine the day of your ovulation.