Hey everyone!
Today I want to talk about losing one's period on a vegan diet. I already talked about this on my Instagram a few times, telling you that I've lost and regained my period. Anyways, I feel like I should definitely make another Blogpost about it, since many girls are struggling with this issue, being very worried and afraid. Especially when they tell their parents about it, they often get the advice to switch back to a "normal" diet, because they believe that it is the unhealthy effect of a vegan diet. I want to tell you my personal story and I'll also refer to some studies and explain to you why a vegan diet might cause an initial loss of your period and why it is a positive thing.
My story:
I first got my period when I was only 11 years old and it came back regularly afterwards. At that time, I just became vegetarian, but I still ate tons of animal products like milk chocolate, cheese and eggs, which was also why I was obese. When I was thirteen, I finally became vegan, which I think was the best decision I've ever taken. However, eventhough everything seemed to be fine since my fitness and health were at it's best, I suddenly lost my period about half a year after going vegan. At first I didn't really worry about it, but then I came to a point where I told my mumabout it. We first wanted to just wait for it to come back but after a few month, she wanted to go to the woman's doctor with me, which I didn't want to, since I knew that he'd tell me to either take the pill or give up veganism. We luckily didn't go to the woman's doctor, but I wanted to get a blood test anyways, so when they took a blood sample from me, my mum aske the doctor for advice. They weighed me and I was at a totally normal weight, so since being underweight was the only actual reason they knew for someone to lose his period, my doctor told us to visit the woman's doctor as well, so that he could check if everything was alright, but she also said that it can be natural that girls at a young age don't get their period on a regular bases yet. My blood tests turned out perfect and I could luckily convince my mum that I didn't want to go to the woman's doctor. So time went by, month by month. One year was over and it wasn't back yet. I actually used to forget that I had lost my period, but sometimes I thought about it again and desperately researched on the Internet, but the only things I could find were girls suffering from anorexia or people you have regained their periods after half a year or a maximum of 1 year. I however, didn't even get my period back after 1,5 years and I didn't really expect it to come back anymore, so of course I was scared at some point and it also made me doubt the vegan lifestyle which was terrible.
The scientific reason/solution
One day I found some very interesting information about the effect of animal products on the period when I read the China Study. T.Colin Campbell exlplained that studies have shown that the average age of girls getting their periods in Western countries differs a lot from the age of girls who live in Chinese villages. While the Western age is 11 ( exactely what I experienced!), the average age in China is 17 (!!). So what is the difference between these two groups? Campbell states that the consumption of fat is between 25-30% in Western countries (e.g. US) and only between 6-24% in China. This smaller consumption of fat was also strongly connected with a decreased intake of animal products and therefore less cholesterol. Campbell tells that they could observe a direct connection between a higher fat/cholesterol consumption (animal products!) and increased hormone levels (such as ostrogen). Higher hormone levels also mean that girls get their periods earlier and it also means an increased risk to get breast cancer! After I had read this passage of the book, I understood what was going on, everything finally made sense. I had consumed so many animal products at such a young age, I was just one of those victims of our society. I loved all kinds of sweets with tons of dairy in it, but I didn't know that milk stimulated my hormones since it is usually supposed to make a little calf grow fast, but since I wasn't a calf, those growth hormones stimulated my hormone levels in an unnatural way and basically made me get my periode at an age where I wasn't supposed to get my periode yet. Also meat is pumped with hormones in order to increase the reproduction rate of pigs, cows etc. I'm very convinced of the fact that if I had been vegan all my life, I wouldn't have got my period at such an young age. Now it's time to continue my story though. So what have I changed? Well I actually just stayed patient and let my hormone system regenerate on it's own. After giving up all kinds of animal products, your body's hormone system will come to it's natural state again, that's why you loose your periode when you are vegan as a teenager, eventhough this sounds ridiculous to most people in our society, you are probably still too young if you get your periode at an age of 15 or even 16. The Chinese girls of the study were 16-19 years old when they first got their period, eating a mostly plant based diet! Well and the end of this story fits perfectly to the results of this study! After 2 years my periode came back, at an age of 16. This is not the very ending of this story however, since it actually disappeared again after 2 month, but looking back, that was totally fine. My body was still in the process of regeneration and yeah my periode was gone for one more half year and now it is back and you know what? I just kept trusting my body and it came back shortly after my 17th birthday about 3 month ago! Since then it came back on a regular bases again and refering to the study, this development is exactely what they observed too! There is also another amazing aspect about this that I really want to emphasize. WheneverI got my period when I was younger, I had a terrible pain in my stomach and I just felt bad, but now that' s COMPLETELY gone, no stomach ache, no tiredness, no anything!!
This is just my personal experience, but for me it has shown that I'm doing the right thing and that veganism is the way to go, it is NOT UNHEALTHY (!). It is definitely the opposite, it's our natural diet, it contains all the foods our body wants to eat. I hope that all those girls, going through the same thing read this post, so please share it with anyone who's desperately searching for an answer.
(source: China Study (p. 87 ff. of the German version ))
I hope I could help you,
Lisa <3
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