The Unknown Link: Women's Health Issues and Celiac Disease Ep. 118

I want to let you in on a secret: Did you know that celiac disease presents a unique set of challenges to women? Women with celiac disease often grapple with infertility, early onset menopause, menstrual problems, and even osteoporosis. These symptoms - although common in many women - have a critical link with celiac disease that often goes unnoticed. In today's episode, we pull back the curtain on these issues, underscoring the importance of getting tested for celiac disease if you're experiencing any of these.

As we navigate through this, we'll also uncover the transformative power of a gluten-free diet. But, it's not all about packaged gluten-free food. The real magic happens when you embrace a lifestyle of nutrient-dense whole foods. We'll traverse this landscape, discussing ways to nourish your body effectively and manage symptoms. As we embark on this journey, I'll share how I lend support to my clients through my programs. If you've been grappling with any of these symptoms, or know someone who has, this episode promises to be a game-changer. So, tune in and discover how understanding the symptoms of celiac disease and a gluten-free diet can be a powerful antidote.

Want to know how I've nailed living with Celiac Disease? Ultimate Celiac System has all my exclusive tips, secrets and insights.
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Chapters

• 0:00 Celiac Disease Symptoms in Women
• 8:16 Gluten-Free Whole Foods for Nourishment

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Now, as a woman living with celiac disease, we are thrown so many more symptoms than what men have, and this is basically due to being a woman. We have the pleasures of being able to have a baby, and we have our periods and we go through menopause, and we have all of these things that men don't experience. So today I wanted to talk about some symptoms that are very specific to women with celiac disease, for two reasons. One, if you have not been diagnosed with celiac disease, this is for an awareness for you. If you're thinking that perhaps you might have celiac disease, or you might have someone in your family that has got celiac disease and they refuse to get tested. Or it might be because you do have celiac disease and every now and again you might think it's okay to have gluten, or you're not overly careful with your celiac diagnosis. Now, i'm probably guessing, if you're listening to this you're not that type of person, but just in case you're not overly careful, then this is probably more for you. Now, most of these issues are, in fact, people that haven't been diagnosed with celiac disease. So they've got celiac disease but they don't have a diagnosis. These are some of the problems that those women suffer and even if you're a medical professional and you're learning more about celiac disease, it can be really important to know about these problems, because then you can go on and do tests for celiac disease and help this woman get through these problems, because it's unfair that they don't get a diagnosis. Now, one of the biggest things that I feel needs to have more resources and people know more about is infertility, because there are so many women that are out there trying to fall pregnant, that go through IVF and they have all these problems with falling pregnant and no one thinks to test them for celiac disease. No one's out there going wow, you might actually have celiac disease and this is what's causing you problems with trying to fall pregnant. Now I've done an entire episode on pregnancy and celiac disease, so I'm not going to delve into that too deeply, but if that interests you, go back and have a listen to that. That's episode 57 of the Healthy Celiac Podcast and you can learn a little bit more about that and how the benefits of a gluten-free diet should help women to fall pregnant if they do have celiac disease. So when we're talking about babies, there are many problems that can happen if someone has celiac disease that is undiagnosed, and a couple of those things are stillbirth and miscarriage, which are both heartbreaking and can change the trajectory of someone's life drastically if they have to deal with those and especially when it can be avoided, if it's to do with celiac disease not being diagnosed. So if for you that's something you've experienced or you know you've gone through multiple miscarriages, it is worth getting tested for celiac disease to rule that out or to find out if you do have celiac disease. You can go on a gluten-free diet and you can go on to have successful births and and make a massive change for your life because of that. So I very much urge you to get tested for celiac disease if that is something you are thinking could be causing you issues.

Speaker 1: 4:09

The next one is cesarean delivery. So it's found that people with undiagnosed celiac disease may have to have an emergency cesarean. Don't ask me why. It's just one of the one of the reasons, or one of the symptoms, rather, of undiagnosed celiac disease in women. The next one is early onset menopause. So it's probably it's probably not something that someone would get early menopause and go, oh, i think I've got celiac disease, so that's a bit of a funny one. There's probably not something that many people would question or think too much about really, because you know it varies with age when people get menopause, go through menopause rather, or start perimenopause.

Speaker 1: 4:54

The next one is menstrual problems. So whether you have like no blood loss whatsoever, you might have no period whatsoever that can be due to, you know, undiagnosed celiac disease absolutely, and just other menstrual problems. So for me, i think, moving forward, everyone should just routinely be tested for celiac disease, because so many people are actually undiagnosed. So if anyone's going to get tested for anything, any health problems, and there's a possibility that it can be tied to celiac disease, why not just routinely test people for it so that we can get to the bottom of these problems quicker? that's just my two bits anyway, and the next one is osteoporosis. So if you know anything about osteoporosis, obviously if your body isn't getting the nutrients that it needs, then your, your bones will start to miss out on those nutrients that they need to stay strong and and not turn into brittle bones as you age. So, yeah, a lot of people that do get a celiac disease diagnosis. If they've been suffering for years and years with symptoms and finally at a diagnosis, they should go get a bone mineral density test just to test how their bones have reacted to that period of time without nutrients.

Speaker 1: 6:27

Oh, i just thought of another one that I didn't mention. Going back to talking about babies, is a shortness of, like a shorter period of time of being able to breastfeed, and I can absolutely vouch for this because when I first started noticing symptoms of my celiac disease, i was breastfeeding my first baby. So my celiac disease was brought on by a childbirth. So I was breastfeeding and my milk dried up and I was eating like crazy. So I was definitely eating enough food and I blame it on. My body wasn't absorbing the nutrients. So whatever I was intaking, my baby was trying to get from my breast milk, but my body was also trying to get everything that it could for me. So my body was probably going what's more important here and trying to keep me alive by giving my body the nutrients and just going this breast milk thing. This just needs to stop because it's not helping you and my milk dried up and I was devastated. It was absolutely devastated that I couldn't continue breastfeeding And I certainly do blame the fact that I had undiagnosed celiac disease that that was the reason that I couldn't continue breastfeeding.

Speaker 1: 7:45

So that's something to think about as well. If you feel that that could be something that's related to what's going on for you, that's something worth looking into. If you've had a successful birth and you tried to breastfeed and you struggled, yeah, that can definitely be a result of undiagnosed celiac disease. So this is definitely an awareness episode If you've already got a diagnosis, i hope this has helped you and I hope this helps you to see how important it is to stick to a gluten-free diet, because I'm a massive advocate.

Speaker 1: 8:17

If you've got celiac disease, you have to eat gluten-free.

Speaker 1: 8:20

You have to be on top of everything with your cross contact and asking all the right questions when you eat out, making sure that your home is safe in your own kitchen, looking after your body, nourishing your body, body, body nourishing your body.

Speaker 1: 8:36

Nourishing your body with nutrient dense food, not just focusing on package gluten-free food. That is not the answer. Yes, we rely on these things, but it's about really nourishing your body and looking after your body the best way that you possibly can by feeding yourself the best food available, and the best way to do that is through eating whole foods, and if you wanna learn more about that from me, then you need to jump on my website and learn more about my programs, because that's my main focus and that's how I support my clients, and I love it because that's my jam. So head to belindaweelandcom to learn more about that If that's something that's of interest to you. But otherwise, thank you so much for checking out this episode and learning a little bit more about the symptoms of celiac disease specific to women. So, yeah, i'll talk to you again next week. Have a fabulous week, as always, and I'll talk to you then. Take care bye.