Gluten can cause more painful periods in women with coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity. Research finds that removing gluten from the diet reduces pain in 75% of women with endometriosis. Gluten may contribute to missed or irregular periods and delayed menarche, with research showing that periods start once gluten is removed from the diet.
Gluten and Coeliac disease
Gluten can cause an issue in different people in different ways. The first group is those with coeliac disease. Coeliac disease is an autoimmune condition where the body essentially attacks itself when gluten is consumed. There can be significant damage to the intestinal tract, and symptoms vary from digestive discomfort to skin rashes, depression and much more. A scientific study found that women with coeliac disease reported a higher amount of menstrual cycle disorders, including PMS, missed or irregular periods and heavy and painful periods. (1)
Another study found that 38% of women who had untreated coeliac disease, reported amenorrhea, meaning their periods had stopped all together. (2)
This is unsurprising, because the body doesn't have the capacity to procreate when there is something attacking it from the inside! So, it goes without saying that this group definitely benefits from removing gluten from the diet.
A big problem with coeliac disease is that it often goes undiagnosed. And it is associated with many different hormonal illnesses, including Hashimoto's thyroiditis and endometriosis. It also has an impact on fertility, multiple miscarriages and early menopause. So, if you think you have coeliac disease but haven't been able to get it accurately diagnosed it can be useful to remove gluten from the diet anyway and see if your symptoms abate.
The encouraging thing is that, in my clinical practice, I find that once coeliacs have removed gluten from their diet and their coeliac disease is under control, they respond really well to herbal and naturopathic treatment for various period and fertility-related problems.
Non-coeliac gluten intolerance (NCGI)
Now, the other group is those with non-coeliac gluten intolerance. This is a trickier group because symptoms show up in a variety of ways and it can't be tested as easily as coeliac disease can. There are a lot of people who know that they can't tolerate gluten, but have been told if they are not coeliacs then this gluten intolerance is in their head! But this certainly isn't the case. Gluten intolerance and gluten sensitivity are very real; the main difference is that coeliac disease is an autoimmune condition. For those with gluten intolerance, gluten doesn't cause an autoimmune response but their symptoms are very real and diverse. One person with NCGI may get mental health issues and fatigue, while another might get bloating, or period problems, or a variety of other symptoms.
So, there is no clear-cut answer for whether gluten affects your period. If you are a coeliac then yes, gluten likely will have an effect on your period. And for a percentage of women with gluten sensitivity, eating gluten may contribute to period pain, irregular periods, missed periods or amenorrhea, or heavy periods. The only way to really know is to cut it out and see how you feel!
Period problems that might be helped by going gluten-free:
1. Period pain and endometriosis
While I don't recommend that all of my clients come off gluten, I do prescribe a gluten-free trial phase for all my clients with severe period pain. There was a very interesting study published in 2012 which showed that 75% of women with endometriosis reported a statistically significant change in pain symptoms after 12 months on a gluten-free diet. (3)
Endometriosis is a condition is associated with very painful periods. It is also, like coeliac disease, severely underdiagnosed. So, for any of my clients who have periods that are painful enough to require pain-relieving medication every month, or who need to take time off work or school due to severe cramps, whether they think they might have endometriosis or not, I recommend coming off gluten for at least 3 months to see if it makes a difference.
Often women notice a huge difference in their first cycle. If they don't notice much difference, they can go back to eating gluten and we continue to work with herbs and other protocols to ease that period pain. But I always think, if it helped 75% of women in this study, then it is worth a try! It's tough because gluten is in a lot of common foods in most people's diets, but it is essentially a free potential solution for period pain and endometriosis, so why not give it a go?
2. Amenorrhea, missed or irregular periods
Amenorrhea is the medical term for a menstrual cycle that has stopped entirely. This is common in undiagnosed and untreated coeliacs. It is also common for gluten to cause missed or irregular periods in those with gluten intolerance. If you are not getting any periods, or if your periods are irregular, it may help to stop eating gluten for a while to see if your cycle comes back. However, there are many different causes behind amenorrhea and irregular periods and it is worth getting these symptoms investigated by a professional. That being said if you have a long waiting list to see your doctor or a specialist which might be the case you may as well try a gluten-free diet for a couple of weeks or months while you are waiting for your appointment, as it may help!
Another cause behind amenorrhea is lack of nutrition, low body weight or excessive exercise, and in this instance giving up gluten is not recommended if the person is already not eating enough. It's better in this instance to focus on nourishing your body with whole foods and good fats to help your body to get the nutrients it needs to maintain your menstrual cycle.
3. Delayed menarche
I am hearing more and more about early menarche these days, with girls getting periods as young as 7 or 8; and the endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) I wrote about in my recent blogs - How plastic can harm your hormones and 7 everyday items that might be making your periods worse - have a big role to play in that.
However, on the other side of the spectrum, delayed menarche is associated with gluten intolerance or untreated coeliac disease. In some cases, women do not go through puberty until their late teens. The really interesting thing is that the menstrual cycle often begins and regular periods come as soon as gluten is removed from the diet. This is a sure sign of gluten intolerance or coeliac disease, and also a sign that introducing gluten back into the diet would likely affect the menstrual cycle and fertility in other ways in the future.
So, in conclusion, does gluten affect your period? Well, it depends on who you are! If you are someone with coeliac disease or non-coeliac gluten intolerance then the answer is yes, gluten can affect your period. If you have not been diagnosed with either of these, but you have painful periods or endometriosis (or suspected endometriosis) then you have a 3 in 4 chance that removing gluten will help ease the pain. If you have amenorrhea or irregular periods, it is definitely worth getting the underlying reason checked out but removing gluten may help too. And lastly if you are in your late teens and haven't got your first period yet, this may also be a sign that gluten needs to go!
A final note on gluten-free products
I just want to quickly share at the end of this blog, that many of the gluten-free products available now are highly processed and are often not a great alternative to the gluten-containing foods that need to be removed from your diet. I recommend always reading the label and picking products that contain a short list of ingredients that you recognise. Buckwheat is a gluten-free grain and you can get delicious gluten-free buckwheat pasta, noodles, flour and more.
If you think going gluten- free might help you and your periods then check out our guide on going gluten-free, written by our nutritionist Emma Thornton.
