Your Sugar Intake May Affect Your Menstrual Cycle Length

At the end of my week 3 review two days ago I mentioned that I expected this final week to be the hardest because I thought I was about a week away from the start of my period. During this time I usually eat a ridiculous amount of dark chocolate. So imagine my surprise when my period starts the next day, a full week ahead of schedule.

For as long as I can remember my cycle length has been long (on average about 35 days), but very regular. That changed when my son was born. My period returned when my son was 10 months old and was very irregular. The same month that my son stopped nursing I started eating Primal. That was this past March when my son was a little over 3 years old.

Since that time my period has again been very regular with a long cycle. It was so regular in fact that it was exactly 35 days for 4 months straight. That was 2 months ago. Last month my cycle was a little shorter and I wondered if my experiment with meditation was reducing some stress that may have caused a longer cycle.

Then this month my cycle was 28 days. I suspect this has a lot to do with my experiment of no sugar and no caffeine. I’m since learned that indeed sugar and stress can affect your cycle length. Sugar and stress can burden your liver which has many jobs including blood sugar regulation and the conjugation of hormones. In addition your liver uses vitamins such as B6 to clear hormones like estrogen and sugar depletes vitamin B6.

In addition to my cycle length being shorter I had very few pre-menstrual symptoms and my usual cravings were almost non-existant. I found myself wanting to eat sweet potatoes and fruit but I had no problems avoiding chocolate or other sweet food. I find all of this very fascinating and I’m curious to see what will happen to my menstrual cycle when I add some sugar back into my diet.