What does a vegetarian diet do to a women's hormones?

Question

I became a lacto-vegetarian 3 weeks ago, and before my period my b***s got very swollen and painful. Does vegetarianism effect women's hormone levels? Should I be taking a vitamin supplement? I do not eat soy.

Answer 1

Its your b- vitamins.  If you don't take a multivitamin, start.  The same thing happened to me when I became a vegetarian.  If you do take a multivitamin every day, then I would try to eat more foods that are high in b- vitamins.  Generally, just try to eat more of a variety of things and it will probably go away.  Now my periods are even better than they were before I went veg.

Answer 2

you should be eating hemp seed.

it is a complete protein (like all meats), unlike soy and tofu which are only half protein.

you can completely replace all meats with hemp seed and still get a completely balanced diet.

Answer 3

i would for sure just be taken a womens vitamin supplemt. jsut to be safe you know..

Answer 4

I don't know what part of switching to a veggie diet would make the effects of PMS worse. Of course, maybe you are eating more phytoestogens, but if you don't eat soy, that shouldn't affect you.

Your b***s hate estrogen spikes, but your bones love them. So maybe if you were eating a lot of high-estrogen foods, it would make a difference.

As far as vitamins, the same goes for veggie women as omnivores. You lose iron during your period. And now, when you don't eat a big steak to get it back, you might need a supplement.

I don't really know how going veggie affected my hormones, since I was on the Depo shot at the time and was a hormonal, bipolar witch anyway. But I do know that a low fat, low sodium diet does wonderful things for the pimply, bloated thing I used to be with PMS.