Could a low-carb diet cause you to get your period early?

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This diet can definitely cause an early period. It has happened to me several times, and then someone said it could be because of the extra iron since menstruation is a build-up of tissue from blood cells. It was very scary the first time it happened, but being overweight is a much greater health threat and I think that for a limited time, this side effect can be tolerated. I wish that more studies could be done on effects from low carb diets, because this is one symptom that isn't discussed in any scientific study as far as I can tell.

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I would think that it is highly unlikely that the Atkins diet could bring on an early period

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I know that it sounds crazy, but it happened to me. I have PCOS and I think that the lack of carbohydrates triggers ovulation. This has happened several times.

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This has happened to me as well. I had been really low carbing for about a week and used the Ketosis strips to find out if I was really burning fat. Yep! I was happy til two days later when I started my period 2 WEEKS early! I'm not over weight, just wanted to burn some fat around my middle. Due to this difficult side effect, I won't be on Atkins for the long term. It would have been nice to mention this as a possible side effect!

First answer by Angel2002. Last edit by CaliforniaSkies. Contributor trust: 1 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 61 [recommend question]