Do Asian women have milder periods than white people?

[tumor]

Do Asian women have milder periods than white?I hear often that Asian(mongoloid) women and their PMS's are not as bad as what white women go thru.

 

[kalladin]

Most asian women have milder PMS than western women. Sometimes PMS in asian women can be absent (I know this because of personal experiences; I'm Chinese :D). It's mainly because of the diet that asians take. They eat mostly grains and vegetables, all natural unprocessed foods (meat in some countries are a luxury). I heard that proteins in soy beans found in tofu, soya milk, soya sauce, etc. weaken the symptoms of PMS.

 

[Moonbear]

Kalladin, can you cite any studies to back up that claim? Anyone can claim personal experience of knowing some women who have no PMS symptoms and others who have very bad symptoms, and I haven't known it to have anything to do with country of origin. The extent to which women experience PMS symptoms, if any, varies quite a lot from individual to individual, and even from month to month.

Soybeans do have phytoestrogens in them (compounds that mimic estrogens), and you'll see "natural remedies" including soy products that claim to treat PMS and symptoms of menopause. However, I remain skeptical that there are sufficient concentrations in any of these to have any effect. We tested some of those products in sheep, which are highly sensitive to estrogen effects, and were unable to detect any estrogenic effects at all!

 

[tumor]

Most asian women have milder PMS than western women. Sometimes PMS in asian women can be absent (I know this because of personal experiences; I'm Chinese :D). It's mainly because of the diet that asians take.

I don't want to go to deep and ask you details, but your symptoms are really milder? how about you mother ? and other female family members ?

 

[Kerrie]

it always cracks me up how men are interested in PMS

 

[tumor]

I want to know just for my personal safety,I work with lots of women.

 

[adrenaline]

Don't forget cultural factors may play a role ie: Asian culture rewards stoicism and possibly allows for less emotional outbursts (at least that was what I was taught when I grew up in the Far East and my mother grillled that into me.) Thus, Asian women may feel the full gamit of pain and emotional lability but just don't express it.

Kalladin may not be too far off on dietary effects. we suspect diet can affect endometriosis, so why not other aspects of menstruation?

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/483515?src=search



Diet Linked to Endometriosis CME
News Author: Laurie Barclay, MD

July 15, 2004 — Dietary fruits and vegetables seem to protect against endometriosis, whereas red meat and ham seem to increase the risk, according to the results of two case-controlled studies published in the July issue of Human Reproduction.

"We found ... that there was a 40% relative reduction in risk of endometriosis in women with higher consumption of green vegetables and fresh fruit," lead author Fabio Parazzini, from the Gynaecologic Clinic of the University of Milan in Italy, says in a news release. "But, for those with a high intake of beef, other red meat and ham, there was an increase of about 80-100% in relative risk."

The investigators compared dietary patterns in 504 women admitted to obstetrics and gynecology departments for laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis with those of 504 women admitted for acute nongynecological, nonhormonal, nonneoplastic conditions. Median age was 33 years (range, 20 to 65 years) in the cases and 34 years (range, 20 to 61 years) in the controls.

Participants were asked about their diet in the year preceding the interview, including how many weekly portions they ate of selected dietary items, including the major sources of retinoids and carotenoids in the Italian diet. They were also asked about alcohol and coffee consumption.

Compared with women in the lowest tertile of dietary intake, risk of endometriosis was significantly lower for the highest tertile of intake of green vegetables (odds ratio [OR], 0.3) and fresh fruit (OR, 0.6). High intake of beef and other red meat (OR, 2.0) and ham (OR, 1.8) were associated with increased risk.

Endometriosis was not significantly associated with intake of milk, liver, carrots, cheese, fish, whole-grain foods, coffee, alcohol, butter, margarine, or oil.

If these findings are confirmed in prospective studies, the authors suggest that attention to diet could reduce the prevalence of endometriosis from 5% in Italy to around 3% to 4% or about 200,000 prevalent cases (and about 10,000 new cases a year) fewer in Italy and 800,000 fewer prevalent cases in Europe.

Study limitations include data for only a few selected indicator foods, no estimate of portion size or total energy intake, and the possibility that a high intake of green vegetables, fruits, and fish could reflect more health-conscious attitudes and/or greater likelihood of having endometriosis diagnosed. The authors recommend prospective interventional studies to address these issues.

"However, despite these limitations, our study does suggest that there is some link between diet and risk of endometriosis and indicates that we now need a proper prospective interventional investigation to study these factors," Dr. Parazzini says. "Endometriosis is a distressing condition that affects the quality of life for many women and if there are adjustments that can be made in the diet to lower the risk it is vital that we gain really firm evidence about which foods protect and which foods increase risk."

The Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro helped support this study.

Hum Reprod. 2004;19:1755-1759

 

[kalladin]

adrenaline, you present a very interesting thing about culture on the effects of PMS.
To all the rest of you who think I'm female.. I'm MALE.. hehe Basically my mom and sister don't really have the stereotypical symptoms of PMS.

Unfortunately I cannot cite any resources on the differences in symptoms experienced in Asian and Western women. In this case, when I stated that "Most asian women have milder PMS than western women", I must restate that into "most asian women I know.. and I know quite a lot, have milder PMS than western women". But I continue to hold onto my belief that the diet plays an important role if indeed, there is such a difference.

K.