Celiac Symptoms Or Unrelated?

[jo-marnes]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a newly diagnosed celiac - blood tests positive, despite very few symptoms, now awaiting specialist appt and biopsy. My GP has been useless - knows less about it than me apparently, so I feel like I am in limbo while I await further help from specialist.

Anyway, I've been noticing a few things, which I'm not sure if they are related to celiac or whether it's my weight and/ or lifestyle (further details below). My issues are:

a) My periods. Used to be every 4 weeks on the dot - could set your watch by them. Started to become irregular 4-5 months ago - 5 or 6 weeks between them, now it's been 8 weeks since I had one. And no, I'm not pregnant!

Blood blisters in my mouth - I know ulcers are common with celiac, but I get blood blisters come up on the lining of my cheeks just randomly. It's not when I've bitten my lip - they are just instantaneous. Becoming more frequent in occurence.

c) Bloating after alcohol/ high fat foods (i.e. cheese) - I've always felt that my problems are related to the fat content of food - things like pastry and fried foods give me heartburn etc. Lately I've noticed that if I eat cheeses/ mayo/ cream etc then I often get bloated afterwards. Same goes if I have 2+ glasses of wine. Problem is that I tend to have both the fat and the wine at the same time, so hard to tell which, or whether both, make me feel bad. I generally don't tend to drink alcohol except for Fridays when a group of us girls get together with nibbles and a bottle ;-)

Anyway, I also know that there is the possibility that this is nothing to do with celiac and more to do with other factors. These include:

a) Weight loss - I have lost 25kg over the last 3 years (INTENDED! Not due to celiac) and have heard that this can affect periods etc

My body fat is low and my BMI is around 19

c) I do a LOT of exercise

d) My general diet is Low fat/ Low GI/ Low Carb so the nights of excess could be upsetting a stomach not used to the foods??

I want to point out that I am not on a gluten free diet yet - thinking that if I need a biopsy then there is no point! That said, I don't eat much bread/ pasta etc - my main gluten input would be from cereals.... not really sure on whether the quantity of gluten eaten has any affect on scale of symptoms?

Sorry it's long, contradictive and probably not very interesting, lol. Just hoping for some pointers - my body seems to be giving me signs but I'm not sure what it all means!

Thanks,

Jo xx

[FooGirlsMom]

Hi,

I can only tell you what I experienced myself.

The first flare-up of Celiac/Gluten Intolerance about 15 years ago caused me to have long cycles. I was like clockwork before also. Then my hormones were off due to progesterone problems. A gluten-free diet corrected these problems.

I always had problems with mouth sores and did not know (until recently) that they are common in Celiacs. My daughter is still struggling with them so I'm trying to find where the gluten is coming from..(probably candy).

I always bloated after alcohol (wine) due to the nitrates/nitrites. I can't eat lunchmeat with it either. I have to buy the natural kind. I'm allergic to them. The high fat foods? Can't help you there. Only with bread/cereal/gluten.

You might be having trouble distinguishing where your symtpoms are coming from due to not being gluten-free yet. I am not allergic to gluten - meaning I don't have a reaction within an hour. Mine comes during digestion when it reaches the intestines - within 24 hours. Then I bloat like a blow fish. So you could be eating cereal for breakfast and not notice symptoms until dinnertime, for instance.

Until you are gluten-free, you may have trouble figuring it all out. Good luck.

FooGirlsMom