Painful menstruation

[Sarah Cortes]

I am wondering if anyone can add any experiences to my own about if dairy makes for sick-to- stomach-painful-crampy-vomiting periods and cruciferous veggies seem to lessen it.  When I was seeing a naturopathic Dr  he  had me shooting for 1 serving (1cup) per day of a cruciferous veggie to balance my hormones.  He also had me eating no dairy products, because he had me start treatment with the elimination diet.  except I did eat occasional small servings of yogurt.
I noticed cramping was nearly non-existant and I actually had a pregnancy scare because my period time was getting close and I wasn't having any breast tenderness !   I usually did and didn't expect it to not happen !
So since correcting my health problem I initially saw him for I have been eating whole foods, re-introduced dairy and have found that the closer to menses I eat/drink cow dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt) The worse my cramps are and I usually spend a couple hours in cold sweats and vomiting during the heaviest day/s of my period. 
I have eaten goat and other dairy products but not enough to find if they give same results.  Un homogenized and unpasteurized milk do seem so far to give same results, maybe not as bad, but haven't drank enough for enough months to tell.
Everyone, even my ND was surprised by this delayed reaction to dairy and I have never heard of anyone else having similar reactions.  Of course most dairy problems are digestive issues, which I have no outward symptoms of. 
This kind of makes me have a 'DUH' moment :  only seems to make sense that drinking a bodily fluid of a lactating mammal which I'm sure contains her hormones, would mess up th hormones of my non-lactating self !
Only problem is nobody else seems to have this problem, LOL.

[Amelia Bentrup]

That's great that you were able to figure it out and solve it!

When I was a teen/early 20's I had pretty bad menstrual cramps. Then in my early 20's, I totally changed my diet and cut out almost all junk foods (including most dairy, with the exception of yogurt). I also started exercising on a regular basis. My menstrual cramps completely stopped at that time. Many years (won't say how many ;)) have passed since my early 20's and since then I have never experienced the severity of cramps I did as a teen. I have worse months and better months. I have noticed that some months are worse, and those months correspond to when my diet is worse (and usually a worse diet involves more dairy products (in the form of cheese).

I don't ever drink milk so I can't say how that would affect things.

I haven't noticed yogurt making a difference....but I definitely have with cheese (and the occasional ice cream).

So, no you're not alone!

Amelia
http://www.my-home-remedies.com

[Sarah Cortes]

Yes, I have found also that exercise seems to reduce the severity of cramps. It's all still a diagnosis in progress !

[Dr. Jason Fullmer]

animal fats will send your smooth muscles into spasm. 3-5 days before your period, cut them out and your cramps will disappear. natural progesterone cream will help too. i have my patients use a product from askdrhelen.com

[Sarah Cortes]

Thanks, that's a new one! Based on what you said here, I imagine possibly the animal fats in the milk are what're causing my problems, not the cow's hormones. I'll give it a try.