Zero Carb and Menstruation

[jessica]

you can ovulate without menstruation
ovulation is what is necessary for the egg to leave the fallopian tube and travel to where it can be fertilize
it hangs out in the tissues that than become the menstruation after the ova has passed its time in the body
menstruation is the body flushing the old egg and tissues out of the body
it can be bloody or sometimes just a bit of goo...i think the typical amount of blood that typical females loose is too much, probably from toxic diets, environment, excessive estrogen, excessive body fat which promotes hormones (not to say %15 and below is at all ideal for health of every person)

when following a healthy diet and lifestyle, having a bit extra body fat is a way of your body knowing, and imparting to mates, that you are healthy and able to feed yourself and nourish a child properly
i know that all of my time spent concerning myself with weight, diet, fitness, to the point of malnourishment, as well as having been a vegetarian is an enormous part of why i do not ovulate regularly, if at all, and have struggled with it since adolescence...

if your wife is worried about fertility she can have her hormone levels tested...this was how i figured out that my body was producing the bare minimum amount of estrogen(at 25) and honestly the only reason i have had two scant periods in 4 years is because i was packing ON the pounds, i am about 120 now but was probably 20-25 pounds at the time...i know i have had other ovulation a few times but perhaps only 2 or three as my weight is generally around 125(i work to hard and am too poor to really eat the amount of nutrition would like to ..migrant farmer)(i am also not zero carb and wasnt when my periods were restored after 3 years)...i have heard wonderful things about acupuncture as well, and have tried it myself but didnt stick with it due to $$$...i take some supplements like DHEA as well as dr. rons ovaries(mostly i think these help me keep my head on straight)...the lack of estrogen can cause a wide range of health issues besides amenorrhea...bone loss is a huge one, as well as generally expedited generation of the body as females past child bearing age are really not that productive in a more natural sense.....(yeah that is crass but we are put her to reproduce..just like other animals)

if she feels the urge for carbs it is best she listens to her body and figure out what the craving is, if its just too little calories or if her body would really like carbs then it is best to honor that to the extent that is beneficial

[babetteq]

pretty much 2 years here, but not all of it raw. The only change in my menstruation is that I get pms VERY rarely now. When I do, it's still bad, but it's so infrequent that I joke that I have no 'early warning system'. I do not have low body weight or % body fat. I'm a 41 year old, apple shaped woman. I exercise, but not extremely. Mostly weights, and mostly only for about 1/2 hr. So it's not like Im an elite athlete. Cramps still come. Everything is the same except for the pms

[majormark]

...
Now i was told i should get more acupuncture done to get my body back in balance but I was out of $$$ from all the other stuff i tried before.  Not following the complete time i needed (7 sessions) my cycles got off again  
It's been 5 years of mostly no cycles.  

Are you aware there are free alternatives to acupuncture?

You can check out the work of Donna Eden, get one book or dvd and do the exercises daily.

[wodgina]

Interesting thread. I never knew you could just produce eggs without menstruation. In paleo times girls would of been pregnant much earlier than the girls here, who have yet to conceive this could also be an issue in terms of this stuff.

[wodgina]

Some girls I was meaning.

[TylerDurden]

Interesting thread. I never knew you could just produce eggs without menstruation. In paleo times girls would of been pregnant much earlier than the girls here, who have yet to conceive this could also be an issue in terms of this stuff.

Actually, girls nowadays seem to be reaching puberty much earlier than before. Plus some palaeo experts have claimed that palaeo HGs were less likely to be pregnant as being pregnant apparently requires some extra fat in the female body which helps conception, and this is used to explain partly why Neolithic settled communities outbred the palaeo HG societies.

[djr_81]

Some people say the human mating season was when fruits arrived on the trees. No idea if that could be accurate.

It sort of makes sense. Spring is when there is the highest abundance of easily obtained nutrition and hence when most (all?) animals conceive. Some species may have multiple broods of offspring throughout the spring, summer, and early fall but it all starts in spring.
Unfortunately our gestation period is so long that conception in early spring would mean delivery in late fall or winter which seems counter intuitive to survival of the young.

[klowcarb]

Healthy well-nourished paleo women hadn't been so lean.
15% bf = very lean. If a woman is aiming for some finess competition then it's ok, for some period.
20% = healthy, sexual attractive woman

Women look different at body fat percentages. I would feel fat at 20%.

[Neone]

Well a side effect of eating zero carb seems to be a low body fat percentage (and muscle, since most people seem to need carbs to bulk up too), so im just wondering what the deal is. If I was to say to somebody "Hey, I got this great diet! It will make you thin and possibly infertile!, but your energy will be through the roof! (haha, sounds like durianrider)", im not sure they'd be convinced.

But anyway.. My wife got her curse back(like she deserves) two days ago. Her diet didnt change but we had a cold so she was sitting down more for a few days. But she blames it from being around lots of pregnant rats all day (or working with other women) haha.

[klowcarb]

Well a side effect of eating zero carb seems to be a low body fat percentage (and muscle, since most people seem to need carbs to bulk up too),

Not if you eat enough calories and enough protein and do weight lifting.

[mrssmith]

I did lose my cycle going lower carb, but after much research and adding a bunch of stuff back into my diet that I probably could've done without, I came across an interesting post suggesting Iodine.

Apparently when you cut out the junk your biggest source of iodine goes down.  Many people don't use iodized table salt anymore either.  Has anyone experimented with iodine to see if it restores menstruation? 

I've just started taking it although I gained my cycle back two months ago after several rounds of Clomid, which apparently is frequently used to treat amenorrhea.  I think I'm going to try to cut out a lot of the carbs again as my reactive hypoglycemia is acting up and see if I can keep my cycle in the long run with the iodine supplementation. 

[Suiren]

This is interesting!
I just got my menstruation back today, after exactly a year postpartum (I am still breastfeeding exclusively), so exactly on time.

I never had a heavy period and I got it fairly late. For the first time when I was 16, and it was not regular before 17. I think that was good because I was all grown same size as today.

My period is always very regular, 29 day cycle, no pains or discomfort or symptoms whatsoever and very light bleeding for 1-3 days. I don't use tampons, just the small pads...what are these called again?
Anyhow, my period does not seem to be affected by weight, or maybe I just never got low enough (for my body type). My lowest was 42kg but my period was still normal, at the moment I am 47kg. I have about 22% of body fat...

I am curious to see how my menstruation is affected by low carb (not doing no carb)

mine seems to depend on my weight (body fat percent probably, but i don't measure it.. i'm 5'7 if that helps any).  when i weigh under 118ish, i lose it.  over 118 and it will come back.  doesn't seem to matter what i'm eating, could be crazy amounts of fat, but if i weigh 112-115, i just won't get it.