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No period?

MOTHMOTH Raw Newbie

My period skipped me this month! I have no idea why. It’s been getting pretty light since I went RAW, but it usually always comes eventually, but this month – NOPE! I’m 25.

Anyone else ever experience this? Can I hope it’s gone for good?

Comments

  • rachel_akikorachel_akiko Raw Newbie

    Mine skipped last month too, and it’s only the second month I’ve been raw. Lol, I hope it’s not gone for good, because I do wanna have kids someday.

  • green girlgreen girl Raw Newbie

    Since going raw my periods have been longer, heavier and more often, so I am not sure what to think of your situation. Have you lost a lot of weight. I was asked by a doctor once if I was still menstrating because I was very thin at the time and had a stress fracture in my leg from over-training. I think he thought I was anorexic. As much as I don’t look forward to that time of the month, I am not sure I would want it gone forever. Being a woman has beautiful perks such as my two wonderful kids!

  • RawsikiRawsiki Raw Newbie

    I’m not even completely raw, but I have missed my period…for quite some time. Kind of worried…kind of elated. Almost 5 months and nothing! I’m going to visit the docotor in a month, and instead of telling me that my body is deprived of nutrients and I will be infertile for the rest of my life, hopefully he tells me, “You’re a miracle! A healthy, heaven-sent miracle! No more periods for you! Enjoy swimming, dancing,...no underwear! Oh, and by the way, you can still have children.” One can only hope….

  • germin8germin8 Raw Master

    rachel_akiko, You can skip a period and still be fertile… usually, skipping a period, does NOT mean you are not able to have kids… you are probably still ovulating and very fertile… well, fertile during the fertile times. You could start tracking your basal temperature (if you’re not using birth control) if you want to know when your fertile & infertile days are.

    Being raw totally changed my body… (I’m not 100% right now) ...but, I had a cycle that lasted almost 50 days once. I’m usually quite regular, so I was quite confused during this time. I was tracking my temperature… and when day 20 came my temperature still had not gone up… this is about when the time it would be up on my regular cycle. It was very confusing… and had me thinking of what is going on… I was “doing everything right” (using the Natural Birth Control method)... and later, my period did come.

    Who knows if your cycle is just really long this time… or if you really did skip a period… but that does not always mean you are infertile.

  • For those who follow the raw diet it is not uncommon to miss one or several periods. A common belief is that a period is the bodies way of getting rid of toxins. Following that logic, the less toxins you have in your body, the less you would need a period to get rid of them. I’m not sure that I agree but it is one theory. I would be reluctant to say that it’s ok because I’m not a doctor. I would recommend that you consult a holistic or naturopathic doctor for advise regarding this.

  • pianissimapianissima Raw Newbie

    moth—given that i’ve read your earlier threads i would guess that your loss of period is due to either (or both) your weight being too low, or a lack of iron. your body gets rid of toxins through your period and a raw diet can minimize flow (even end it), but people also skip their periods because their bodies can’t afford to give anything up…

    i went through a phase in hs where i was severely anemic (not to mention just sad… ever see “welcome to the dollhouse” that was me!) and didn’t have a period for over a year. it WASN’T because my body didn’t have any toxins in it. it was because i was out of balance.

    it seems like your problems might be psychologically rooted (i’m drawing from your post where it seemed like you had an ED), so nipping that in the bud would certainly alleviate all these side-effects.

    i wish you the best of luck!

  • I’m experiencing the same thing. The first two months that I was vegan I had really light periods. But I haven’t had one since I’ve become raw (almost 3 months). I’m also an endurance athlete and I know sometimes that can throw the cycle off too. I’m trying not to worry although I agree with you on the wanting to have kids sinc I’m also 25. I know if I were to go to a doctor they would run all sorts of tests and think there is something terribly wrong with me so I’ve been avoiding it. If it makes you feel better a couple of years ago my best friend’s period totally stopped on her. She had tons of tests done and everything came back normal. Eventually it did return after having been gone for 1 and a half years. I remember seeing a similar topic on here a while ago where almost all women eating raw either had very light periods or none at all and seemed confident that they were ok. I also came across this… http://www.phifoundation.org/menses.html

  • WinonaWinona Raw Newbie

    read www.welikeitraw.com

    Today, there’s a great article on this topic.

  • pianissimapianissima Raw Newbie

    allison- my OB/GYN found no need to run any tests on me this past january. i hadn’t had a period in 8 months since going raw. (it came back btw… on its own) your doctor can tell by looking “down there” to see if you are producing enough estrogen. it’s not uncommon for thinner women to have irregular periods. i told my doc what i eat and he was very impressed. if yours isn’t you should find a better one.

  • rachel_akikorachel_akiko Raw Newbie

    Winona!! I was JUST about to post about the article on We Like It Raw since I just read it today, but you beat me to it. :(

  • Pianissima- Thanks! I don’t have a regular doctor at this time but you’re right. I definitely know what to look for in a Dr. now.

    Winona- That was a very interesting article, thanks! I’m going to check out that book mentioned in the article.

  • Okay, I always thought that menses was the sloughing off of the nutrient rich endometrial lining your uterus prepared in anticipation of a fertilized egg.

    I guess I can believe that a period should not be the Super Plus tampon size that seems to indicate the populations flow. And one of the big arguments for nursing your baby is that it suspends ovulation and subsequent periods, thus giving your body an break from the cycle of fertility. But I think we are supposed to have periods.

    I found this article about menstration: http://www.lib.mcg.edu/edu/eshuphysio/program/s…

    I’m interested to hear what you guys think, since this is my first month off the pill and I’m about a week past my expected menstrual date. Is it raw, does my system need time to re-sync itself, or am I missing some vital nutrients?

  • I have had an on and off period since I first got my period when I was 10 years old. I sometimes won’t get a period for 1-2 years!

    After a lot of inconclusive tests, going from doctor to doctor, experimenting with different diets, herbs, and supplements—I found a great OB/GYN who enlightened me.

    People have amenhorrea (lack of menses) for 2 reasons: problems with the ovaries (i.e. polycystic ovarian syndrome), or the hypothalamus is not sending the signal for menses to take place (called hypothalamic amenhorrea). There can be a myriad of causes for either problem.

    I have hypothalamic amenhorrea, which is the best diagnosis if you have concerns about fertility—because it does not impact fertility. If you see a good OB/GYN that is a fertility speciality they will be able to help you get pregnant easily.

    My OB/GYN had me take Vitex (aka Chaste Tree Berry)—and in 3-4 weeks I had a period after not having one for almost 1 year. If this route did not work she was going to have me wear estrogen patches.

  • suryadayasuryadaya Raw Newbie

    Your percentage of body fat and the hormones excreted naturally from it (leptin, estrogen, etc) plays a huge role in menstruation. If your body fat falls below a certain level your brain reads those levels and assumes the food supply is not adequate enough to bare children so it halts menstruation and reserves that energy for other things. Thats why anorexics and hardcore athletes get amenorrhea. The body’s attempt doesn’t work 100% though, because many of them are still capable of getting pregnant.

    It isn’t necessarily a bad thing as long as you are nutritionally stable and still getting an appropriate amount of BOTH types of fat for your body to function correctly.

    HOWEVER, if you think theres a chance that repeated missed periods are caused by really low body fat, you might want to make sure your estrogen levels are still at an OK level. While low levels of estrogen throughout your life are thought to do neat things like decrease your risk of breast cancer, it also lowers your bone density and affects other vital systems.

    LibbyB: If you just came off the pill, expect it to take a while for your period to cycle back to normal. Lots of people have progesterone irregularieties after getting rid of the pill. I went off over a year ago and I’m just finally starting to get back to a normal 28 day (roughly) cycle. For a while it was like: 28 days, 35 days, 41 days, 15 days, 30 days, then a 12 day period… drove me bat sh*t crazy. I was so used to having it every 28 days EXACTLY (could place it the exact time of afternoon) that I was in pregnancy scare mode within a day after I should’ve started, knowing full well that increased stress will quickly postpone my periods – it was a pretty nerve wracking year.

  • There is this really great article…. http://www.phifoundation.org/menses.html

    i believe the reason non-raws get a period is because it’s the way the body cleans out all the toxins, since we don’t eat toxic things then well we don’t get a period. I have been raw for the last two weeks or so and i have missed my period for this month!

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