Dukan Diet and Menstruation

[kerryashton]

Hi I am on the pill, have been for years. Anyway 2 weeks ago i came on my period in the middle of 21 day Pill course so i stopped nad had 7 day break,i bled for 7 days then recommenced taking my pill. That was a week ago and i didn't think much about it till yesterday when i came on again!! Anyone had anything similar or is this a known Dukan Side effect? It worries me as i don't know whether i'm covered contraceptive wise never mind the inconvenience!
Any advice would be appreciated

 

[Atropos]

It sort of happened to me - I'm officially post early menopause, and on HRT - but in the first month or so of dukan my cycle came back to life like the baddie in the last reel of a zombie movie!

I asked a mid-wife I know, and she wondered if the diet + plus the fat burning hadn't liberated oestrogen back into the blood stream.

It might be worth taking extra precautions for a month or two - just in case!

 

[malevolentnuzzler87]

This happens to me all the time

I have the implant and used to NEVER have a TOTM, but since losing weight it happens. Its because you get more furtile the closer you get to the target weight, thus why doctors say to lose weight to try to get pregnant.

The first few times it happens its horrendous, but it becomes less frequent and eventually stops (so I hear, havent been on dukan that long)

Important thing is to almost disregard your weight the week before, you usually see a big drop during or after.

 

[malevolentnuzzler87]

ps the contraception still should be working, though check your doctor as I have the implant not the pill so may be different x but dont stop taking it when your on unless doctor says otherwise

 

[lorlypop]

This has happened to me too - i'm on cilest, & there have been a few months where I've come on a week or so early. I've found that my periods have been a bit "lighter" than usual too, I used to really suffer. If only Dukan could get rid of the mood swings..!

 

[bijouxdolly]

I have the implant too, and hadn't had one period until I started doing Dukan and I had one for a week, stopped for a week then had another one a week after! I did wonder if the foods we eat in Dukan could bring on my period. I haven't had one since though.

 

[wkdstepmum]

Happened to me a few weeks ago, I am usually so regular you could actually set your clock by me and I was so taken aback I called in to the hospital for fear I was having an early miscarriage or something. I haven't even lost LOADS of weight or anything but I guess any weight loss at all has an affect.

 

[Atropos]

I think it's because of the way ketosis works - oestrogen, like other hormones, is fat soluble, and tends to get stored in fat; this is one of the reasons that too much or too little body fat can effect fertility.

Because ketosis burns fat directly, maybe it liberates all that stored oestrogen/progesterone/testosterone etc straight into the blood stream.

 

[wkdstepmum]

Do you have any idea what percentage body fat is normal Atropos??? I only ask because I know you know your stuff!x

 

[Atropos]

Ha! I've really no idea - I do know that what is "normal" would be very different for different genotypes/body morphology!

My two nieces are only 18 months apart in age, have access to the same diet, the same environment, and the same level of activity (lots! they are feral little monsters with a big garden to get lost in!) - but their fat percentages are already very different. One is a stocky little chub like her dad and the other is a tall skinny minnie like her great-grandma.

 

[Atropos]

Oh - and of course "normal" would be different for age and gender and life-history as well; a 57 years old Inuit woman with 2 kids will have a very different "normal" to a 25 year old Eritrean man whose mother smoked during pregnancy.

 

[wkdstepmum]

Yeah I guess I mean 'healthy' more than 'normal' perhaps... I know athletic people like my OH have to have incredibly low body fat percentages but I suppose I wonder whether there is a healthy body fat percentage in the same way that there is a healthy BMI number...

 

[Atropos]

Yeah I guess I mean 'healthy' more than 'normal' perhaps... I know athletic people like my OH have to have incredibly low body fat percentages but I suppose I wonder whether there is a healthy body fat percentage in the same way that there is a healthy BMI number...

As far as I know, no - BMI is easy to calculate, and crude, and people can had wave over the anomalies like athletes having "overweight" BMIs because of muscle density.

If anyone had to calculate a fat percentage curve they'd need to allow for far more variables.

And even BMI is suspect - women in the UK with a BMI of 25-26 have a higher life expectancy than women with a BMI of 20-21. No one knows if this is causation or correlation - but it does rather call into question the whole notion of "normal" versus "overweight"

 

[wkdstepmum]

I believe it's terribly hard to gauge accurately but I know that some of the calculators I saw when hunting for BMI calculators offered a rough body fat percentage calculation based on sex, age, weight and measurements of certain parts; neck and waist circumference for example.
God knows how accurate that is!
I'd call into question the research done into women of BMI 25-26 having higher life expectancy too and would imagine there are far too many variables in a woman's life to even attempt to draw any hard and fast conclusions or results never mind attach them to something as tiny as a one point BMI bracket.
I know it was a fairly loose question and thanks for answering Atropos. Wouldn't it be so much easier if one could say, 'I have such and such body fat percentage and going above this wouldn't be healthy'. They don't make it easy for us do they! *stupid scientists*!!!

 

[Atropos]

You are right about the BMI mortality thing - it has to be adjusted for cause of death - more people die at low BMIs because people who are dying tend to be very ill, and very ill people tend to lose a lot of weight.

Once that is adjusted for there are some clues that after menopause a moderate amount of body fat protects women from heart disease.

It's the moderate bit that matters - people who drink a little red wine every day live longer than alcoholics, but also longer than those who never drink alcohol in their lives.

 

[Atropos]

(i'm a hypocrite though - I've chosen to stabilise at BMI 25 because having gone from BMI 17 to BMI 30 in my lifetime, I know that 25 was where I looked best - a perfect hour-glass. Smaller, and I am just a pair of huge hips and a flat chest. Any bigger and I am a blob.)

Vanity. All is vanity.

 

[wkdstepmum]

That's exactly my question really, what is defined as 'moderate' if we have no accurate means of comparative measurement?! How do we know if we're carrying a 'moderate' amount of body fat? It's all a little free and easy for my liking. I insist some genius does more research immediately if not sooner!!!

 

[wkdstepmum]

I'm aiming for in the 21s, my BMI at the mo is 22 and it's fine but it's not quite where I want to be! It's my bikini body I want back! *vanity*

 

[Marissa]

I have experienced the same. On the Dukan diet for 3.5w. One week into my new pack of pills I got my period for the second time in a few weeks. Much more watery then usual. Had stalled losing weight this week but perhaps it was retained water? Who knows...

 

[abz]

all the time. i have an implant and don't get totm, then every time i start to lose weight i do. i was told that it was likely hormones being released as fat cells shrank...