How eating Keto affects a woman's hormones and her monthly visitor


#101

Good, I’m so glad!

Much of the LCHF/keto literature in what is a patriarchal culture - ironically like modern medicine itself - tends to be male generated and centered. And the female scholars and advocacy takes some time to be integrated into the literature and outlooks and subject-matter-experts realms. Fortunately, the LCHF/keto world being so biology-based is a benefit, it seems to naturally expedite the re-centering of female realities - and I’m grateful!

One example is in the documented evidence and Dr. Stephen Phinney’s observations related to famous Finnish-origins entrepreneur and keto triathlete Sami Inkenen and his partner Ms. Meredith Loring (a triathlete in her own right). Meredith & Sami co-rowed a boat from California to Hawaii and set a new world record!
During their journey, Sami (a hearty muscled tall man) bonked for about two days due to mineral levels or detox - and had to lay down in the sleeping hold - while Meredith (a petite lean woman) not only rowed the whole damn boat by herself, but kept to their schedule without much delay created by Sami’s temp sickness! It’s all in the excellent Irish directed documentary “Cereal Killers II” which I highly recommend, along with Cereal Killers I :smiley:

In addition, Fred Hahn, co-author of Slow Burn Fitness Revolution along with Dr. Mary Dan Eades and Dr. Michael Eades, has done much for female resources in that classic book that provides a bunch of LCHF dietary guidance along with an excellent home-based, 30 mins a week simple strength training routine that enhances & compliments metabolic healing for women who have the low-stress conditions and are in the lower end of obesity, to make strength-training workable. What I love about the routine they came up with and convey really well in that book is that it makes it possible for house-bound, socially isolated, impoverished women - as well as women who just like to avoid the bizarre misogynist gym scene - to take up the strength-training routine using such items as water jugs and canned food items for weights in lieu of pro dumbbells and such. Very accessible and compassionate!

And, just the other night on Mark Sisson’s blog, I read that there are two articles in the works by two female authors - all about female biology & ketosis/lipolysis, etc. I think the body of anecdotal evidence on female physiological phenomena is sufficiently big at this point to justify a female-specific controlled study or survey at least.

One thing that we all face in industrial culture is the fact that over 100 industrial chemicals are stored in our body tissues (dioxin, formaldehyde, arsenic, cadmium etc). For females, in addition to the potentially restorative effects of estrogen release via lipolysis and the cycle balancing potentials of LCHF/keto in general (in otherwise unmedicated women at least) is the fact that we are simultaneously undergoing release of toxins that have been brilliantly stored in fat (not sure which fat or if it’s in all types of fat). It’s A LOT going on! I think there is a reasonable argument to make that female biological fat storage (which helps fertility and lactation and thus the whole human race!) makes for perhaps a heavier detox load when burning some 30-100+ fat pounds via ketosis! I think this may possibly require the high-end of fat (85-90%) during the detox, and a double dose of electrolytes as well as angstrom magnesium (mag helps 18K bodily processes) and be benefited by a certain amount of sweating or sauna visits or ionic foot baths to help the body release heavy metals and various chemicals.

Males also undergo the detoxing and hormone rebalancing, but in a comparatively less dramatic way - after all, menstrual blood itself, plus the return of regular cycles in older women, and the subsequent possibilities of enhanced fertility and “keto babies” for female bodies is rather HUGE in its potential impacts! Traditional indigenous & aboriginal peoples of the bioregioanal LCHF human history (90%+ of which was egalitarian in culture, according to the meta-analysis done by Elizabeth Pennisi, published in the journal Science in 2014) honored old women’s leadership and had huge respect for female biology as its own realm of the universe :wink:


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #102

From your lips to the funding agencies’ ears!

A sapient species that really had its act together would in fact focus its scientific research on those members of the species who are primarily responsible for the existence of new members of the species, and thus the species’ continued existence.

In other words, we should be studying women and generalizing to men, not the other way around!!!

P.S.—Finished your post and saw you wrote essentially the same thing. But I’m going to leave this post up, because the point cannot be too often made—especially to men!!


#103

The June 2017 interview between Leanne Vogel CHN and Megan Ramos IDM Clinical Director (Dr. Jason Fung’s place) is chock full of female life cycle info. It’s recorded as well as in transcript form, in case any females here haven’t yet gotten to check it out. I’m sure it’s posted elsewhere around here too :wink:


#104

@Jonesy Hi - I didnt think anything in the world was going to cheer me up today, and then i read your label of ‘Shark Week’ - i burst out laughing as I figured out what you meant. I have had serious Shark Week blues today, and hence searched for any forum topics related to women’s periods.

I had a boyfriend once who would pretend to check the apartment theatrically for sharks when i got home, when he knew i was having cramps. It never failed to get me out of my bad mood and laughing no matter how physically bad I felt.

We never thought to call it shark week though!

Cheers for the laugh and hope your SWs have continued to be easier on keto!

:heart:


#105

Post-menopausal here. During peri-menopause, I would go months without a cycle and then suddenly they’d come back for a few months, only to disappear again a few months later. This was before I was keto. I finally knew I was post-menopause when it had been two whole years since my last cycle. I know what you mean about missing your cycles; I went through that also. But now that it’s been 3-1/2 years, I don’t miss them at all.


#106

Hi there,
Im a keto newbie - just started week 3 (and loving it!) and in the first Shark Week :laughing: of keto. Thanks to all who’ve contributed to this topic in the pat year since it started. Its been really helpful! This month was entirely different from normal, but it turns out it tallies with experiences of others on keto.

New on Keto:

  • I had a few horrid pimples (felt like a teenager! Seems to align with others’ experiences, plus the increased fat and dairy in my diet?)

  • I usually get PMS one day before, but it was absent this time. I dont understand this at all! I always get 1 day of sadness just beforehand, with chocolate cravings. I got zip. So it was like, as other women have mentioned, that it just creeped up on me! Or, as one woman put it, the shark week got more efficient!

  • I had tons of emotional sensitivity once it started. Wanting to find a puppy to hug it one minute, and wanting to throw something the next. Lol. Happy medium: i stayed away from people as much as popssible!

  • I got no cramps. None! Zero! What the heck!?

Same Old:

  • I did have the chocolate and sugar cravings as usual. Real bad. I munched on sugar free chocolate, keto chocolate truffle fat bombs, and keto almond cookies.

Bonus: I did not break my new keto WOE!

Cheers again for all the info members shared on here. It helps to have such a bank of reference points
Xo


(Naomi Brewster) #107

Good work - here’s to lessening the disruption of shark week. Chocolate craving may be an indication of magnesium deficiency
https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/article/fat-loss-articles/what-do-food-cravings-mean/


#108

This may be true…I am currently out of magnesium and could definitely use a piece of dark chocolate right now…LOL


(Nicole Sawchuk) #109

I’ll throw in my two cents. After having kids, my once irregular cycles became regular. But the PMS symptoms were frustrating and seemed to be getting worse! I went low carb and they seem to calm down (in the sense they did not keep getting worse). I added fasting 8 months ago. While my cycles remained regular, weird shit started popping up. I started spotting. My length of my period was all over the map etc… I read some where that with the weight loss, your hormones were going to shift but to keep an eye on it and keep pushing through it. They said things should go back to normal. So I kept going.

2 months ago, the weird shit went away. As a bonus, I rarely have PMS symptoms! Its kind of unbelievable when I look back on it. Don’t get me wrong, its not perfect, but damn things are super manageable! I think with even better tweaks of my diet (nutrient content), I was achieve nirvana when it comes to my period…granted probably in time for menopause :slight_smile:


#110

Thanks! Its giving me ideas on how to be pro-active about upping magnesium heavy foods next month


#111

Wondering the same thing. Im not sleeping and I am wondering if my body isn’t getting what it “needs” or is used to and so it won’t want to reproduce.


#112

Hey @gnomesb sending gratitude your way :sunflower: :sunny:

This time shark week came early, but thanks to your heads up on magnesium I was already preemptively munching on pumpkin seeds, almonds and extra avocado. Booyah! Zero chocolate cravings so far!

Cheers for sharing,


(Bethany ) #113

I have done keto diet for two years, and paleo diet two years prior to that. I’ve had very regular periods. I stopped breastfeeding my 3rd child on October 1, 2017 and have had 3 periods since that lasted the appropriate 6-7 days with very healthy red blood. I’m due for my period in a few days, but the last 3-4 days I’ve had off and on brownish blood spotting in creamy discharge. I went strict keto like Stephanie person recommends for the new year( no dairy which i didn’t do anyway, no nuts or seeds except macadamias once every couple weeks, and only IF once a week, no carb ups or refeeds)… does anyone know if this is normal and how to fix if it’s from keto? I’ve never used birth control in my lifetime and I’m 38 1/2 years old and i want a fourth child soon so i need regular menstrual cycle. Thank you :pray:t2: :blush:


#114

i get water retention in my breasts and they hurt so bad for days, i’ve never had that prio to keto and i still didn’t get my period.


(What The Fast?!) #115

When I first started keto, shark week was ALL over the place - it was late, it was early, it was totally erratic. Then, it normalized…then I started extended fasting and went totally whackadoodle again. I even had two shark weeks just two weeks apart.

Before keto, it was 5 days long and was exactly 28 days apart every single month. Now, every month is a guess. It’s generally between 4.5 and 6 weeks apart now, and generally 5 days long, but sometimes it disappears and then magically shows back up a day later!

I know that keto is supposed to balance your hormones, so maybe it will normalize eventually.


#116

Hey @KetoLikeaLady, can I ask how long you’ve been doing keto? i.e. how long Shark Weeks have been irregular.
Thanks for sharing!


(What The Fast?!) #117

Yep, since end of March 2017 so about 10 months.


(Nicole Sawchuk) #118

That is now my only symptom of my period is the sore boobs.


#119

how long does it take to get your period after the sore boobs? a week before or just before? It happened to me last month 2 days before and went away immediately with the period but I think I am going on 3 or 4 days now and I still got nothing. i think that was my only symptom too, it came as a surprise because no cramps.


(Nicole Sawchuk) #120

Sadly I am all over the map with that one. Some times it is only a day or two. Last month it was over a week and half (plus my period ended up being like 5 days early!). Today they started getting sore but my period isn’t due for another week. So who knows. But I don’t get cramps and I rarely get bitchy!