why do girls only have 14 good days a month?

you got it bad? we're the ones that have to deal with you!!

YES YES AND YES. This is the only reason keeping me from switching to women. True story.

LoL Love it!

I know this will make some people crazy. I'm not on the pill, uterus is intact, and I take no drugs. I quit dairy (which is full of hormones that they give to cows to produce milk) and my pms symptoms are gone. No kidding. It may not work for everyone. I'm not pushing this on anyone. Just a note though, it is free to try and if you don't like it or it doesn't work you can always go back. Also I have nothing to gain if you try it. So what do you have to lose other then pms symptoms?

Okay, I'll bite.

Is quitting dairy the only change you have made in the time that your PMS symptoms disappeared? Or did you also start eating differently in general and perhaps exercising more? Because exercise is a proven factor in decreasing the severity of PMS. I would like to see some evidence that dairy intake produces the same effect size.

I can't speak for her but in my case, this was the only variable. I had already been working out consistently for 6-8 months before the switch to hormone-free dairy. And I didn't make any other dietary changes. A Whole Foods had opened not too far from us and I started shopping there regularly and buying their milk and other dairy there. After a couple of months of virtually no pain from the endo and other PMS symptoms and realizing it wasn't just one fluke lucky month, I started really paying attention to what could have caused the sudden positive change. I didn't buy it for that purpose, only the virtue of buying milk from "happy" cows, this was a very happy surprise side effect. This was 8 years ago.

There are two main ways to demonstrate that a variable X has an effect on Y. One is to include all of the other variables P, Q, etc. that could potentially affect Y into the equation, and then see if X still accounts for some remaining variance. If it does, then X is probably a predictor of Y. The other way is to take two groups that are identical with respect to P and Q, and vary X between them. If Y also changes between them, then X has an effect on Y. Furthermore, in order to establish an effect in the latter scenario, the difference between the two groups has to exceed the differences within each group.

So let's suppose that the following things that can affect severity of PMS: weight/fat percentage, protein intake, carbohydrate intake, the woman's age, and the woman's reproductive history, i.e., is she out of puberty, has she had children and how close she is to menopause (I am not saying these are all proven predictors of PMS, but just bear with me for the time being). We would have to either get a sufficient number of women for whom we have the relevant history and who differ in dairy intake only, or else we have to get two groups that are matched for these factors. It's a tall order, and I do not think we are going to come out knowing more about the effect of dairy on PMS from the anecdotal reports of individual women in this thread.

Just finished my TOM up...I officially retained 3-5 pounds of water for 2 whole weeks! Yesterday I was down 4 pounds...this morning I was down 5.5 pounds!!

Luckily my 'time of the months' are over! And I don't miss them at all. :happy:

I don't like the word 'flow'

True for me too!......:sad:

i think men should go thru everything that we go thru.

Well I've researched it. I think you have your facts wrong. The dairy and meat industry are full of hormones and antibiotics is a fact. And just because your body doesn't react to the hormones does not mean everyone else's doesn't. It's like an allergy some people have zero response and some are totally affected.

Sorry to burst that bubble. But I know when I am right & would never post about it if I was not. React to the video on that page.

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/issues/dairy.php


or for those who believe the dairy industry
http://www.dairy.edu.au/discoverdairy/Teachers/From-Farm-to-Plate-Module/How-Cows-Make-Milk.aspx

Firstly, I'm not sure where the op is from but in the United States it is a fact that they add Hormones to milk to increase milk production. In Canada, we do not add hormones to our milk. Both countries add antibiotics whether they cow needs it or not as far as I can tell from my research. Secondly is doesn't matter if there are added hormones are not. Milk comes from lactating cows, for the cows to lactate they have to have certain hormones present for this too happen. These hormones are in the milk you drink therefor transferred to you. These hormones for some women (not all) can mess with their own natural hormone production cycle hense why some women (again not all) have fabulous results from eliminating dairy.

Think of this like a chemical reaction. All females have a certain amount of female hormones inside of them. The amount changes with part of the monthly cycle the female is at. If you add hormones (via birthcontrol, meat, dairy, etc) it changes the balance of the equation. Each woman is an individual so have slightly different equations so the addition or elimination of hormones will effect them differently: some good some bad.

I only suggested dairy because it works so well for me. It might work for the op. It's free and reversable with no consquences. So what's the harm?

The potential harm would be eliminating a good source of nutritious food in the absence any evidence that this would have any effect on PMS symptoms. At least I have not seen any evidence cited so far--just speculation.

I know this will make some people crazy. I'm not on the pill, uterus is intact, and I take no drugs. I quit dairy (which is full of hormones that they give to cows to produce milk) and my pms symptoms are gone. No kidding. It may not work for everyone. I'm not pushing this on anyone. Just a note though, it is free to try and if you don't like it or it doesn't work you can always go back. Also I have nothing to gain if you try it. So what do you have to lose other then pms symptoms?

Okay, I'll bite.

Is quitting dairy the only change you have made in the time that your PMS symptoms disappeared? Or did you also start eating differently in general and perhaps exercising more? Because exercise is a proven factor in decreasing the severity of PMS. I would like to see some evidence that dairy intake produces the same effect size.

I can't speak for her but in my case, this was the only variable. I had already been working out consistently for 6-8 months before the switch to hormone-free dairy. And I didn't make any other dietary changes. A Whole Foods had opened not too far from us and I started shopping there regularly and buying their milk and other dairy there. After a couple of months of virtually no pain from the endo and other PMS symptoms and realizing it wasn't just one fluke lucky month, I started really paying attention to what could have caused the sudden positive change. I didn't buy it for that purpose, only the virtue of buying milk from "happy" cows, this was a very happy surprise side effect. This was 8 years ago.

There are two main ways to demonstrate that a variable X has an effect on Y. One is to include all of the other variables P, Q, etc. that could potentially affect Y into the equation, and then see if X still accounts for some remaining variance. If it does, then X is probably a predictor of Y. The other way is to take two groups that are identical with respect to P and Q, and vary X between them. If Y also changes between them, then X has an effect on Y. Furthermore, in order to establish an effect in the latter scenario, the difference between the two groups has to exceed the differences within each group.

So let's suppose that the following things that can affect severity of PMS: weight/fat percentage, protein intake, carbohydrate intake, the woman's age, and the woman's reproductive history, i.e., is she out of puberty, has she had children and how close she is to menopause (I am not saying these are all proven predictors of PMS, but just bear with me for the time being). We would have to either get a sufficient number of women for whom we have the relevant history and who differ in dairy intake only, or else we have to get two groups that are matched for these factors. It's a tall order, and I do not think we are going to come out knowing more about the effect of dairy on PMS from the anecdotal reports of individual women in this thread.

I didn't mean to imply my experience is true for all women. And from rereading above, I don't think the other poster meant that either. Clearly, from the small sample of women who have responded here, we can see different responses to exclusion and inclusion of dairy in the diet. You started out questioning the other poster's experience. I can't speak for her experience, but I can speak for mine. And I just want to restate that I didn't give up dairy, I switched to hormone-free dairy.