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lack of cycles= vegetarianism

5200 Views 46 Replies 23 Participants Last post by  Debrah
Hello, I posted a while back about problems related to my menstrual cycle, but I have a few more questions about how vegetarianism relates to menstrual cycles. I'm 16 and have only had two cycles this year. I became a vegetarian last November, and the loss of my cycle seems to have coincided with going vegetarian, although I had seemed to start to get irregular the summer before. It seemed like when I became a vegetarian, though they totally dissapeared and were gone for 6 months. I went to a doctor who put me on a high dosage of vitamin D which she thought would correct my lack of cycles, and I did get 2 periods which were very light. I have been getting periodic bloodwork, and my testosterone keeps going up. I have gained 15 lbs this year. I have not had a period since early August. Yesterday my mom realized that this has been going on too long, and she made me an appointment with a gynocologist. They had an opening for today, and I went in and they examined me and ran more blood work and I am getting an ultrasound next Monday. They are hoping to get to the bottom of this soon. They think it is either an ovarian cyst that will need surgical removal or a hormonal imbalance such as PCOS. I asked them if they thought that this could be related to my diet and they said that they are almost sure that it isn't. My chiropractor, however has been telling me how vegetarianism is so unhealthy and that my cycles will probably start if I eat red meat. She believes that people really need animal protein in their diets. I'm not sure if being a vegetarian can cause problems or not. I am an ovo vegetarian, but I actually have started to include fish oil in my diet from the insistance of this chiropractor. What do you all think of this? Do you think that sometimes animal food is necessary to maintain hormonal health?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OregonAmy View Post

I really doubt this has anything to do with being veg, unless you're not eating very well.
Agreed. I mean, it's possible, but it could also be stress, or

gaining weight/losing weight/being overweight/being underweight.

Plus, if you're a teen, it's VERY common for periods to be heavy/light, irregular or absent.

Do you know what's led them to believe that it's a cyst or PCOS? While I think that these are important conditions to uncover, if you have them, I also wonder if maybe you're undergoing some unnecessary worry over something that will straighten itself out as you get older.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hopejoy View Post

Well, I used to have regular periods for a few years so that is why they are pretty concerned. Also, my testosterone is very high and it doubled from January to last July. They are testing it again to see if it is still increasing and what it is. My mom has PCOS so that makes it even more likely that I have it.
Ah..there are some indicators then. I was afraid they were jumping to conclusions a bit there.
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There are some other ideas for PCOS aside from the pill, but only you can decide what's best for you. I've recommended this site a couple of times before:

www.soulcysters.com
If it's not PCOS or some other cyst, cancer, etc. then you *should* be able to go without the medicine. There's no reason, as a teenager that you have to have normal, regular periods.

If you were bleeding too much, then you'd have to worry about anemia, but not bleeding enough really isn't that big of a deal.

I'm not saying that there couldn't be benefits, but it seems like they're really worried about everything being "regular". (when every woman is different)
hopejoy...be sure to keep a good journal during this time. I'm highly suspicious that meat eating is the instigating factor here. Keep track of your diet, exercise, sleep, etc. If you can do some observation of cervical fluid too, that would be helpful.

Again, I must say that a teenager not having a regular period is NOT a big deal. Many many times things just work out on their own as a girl matures.
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