Original email for context: I’m on day 14 of p2. I read conflicting answers about injecting during TOM (hCG speak for period/menstrual cycle). I know we are to keep with the vlcd. I’m on the 21 day vlcd and if we are to stop injections during TOM that means my last 6 days of the vlcd will be with no injects, so am I still to do the 72 hr wait after the 21 days of vlcd before starting p3?
ooohkay- this is one of scenarios where it truly is confusing and there is probably no for certain way to do it, but I will “thought-process” this out to see if that helps you decide what makes the most sense for you to do.
So, I know Dr. Simeons said to skip injecting/taking hCG for the duration of your menstrual cycle. When I did some research to find out why (because I’m a questioner and must always know why first if I’m going to do something ;)-) I found that women produce a small amount of hCG during their menstrual cycle. So my guess is that Dr. Simeons figured that essentially a woman was producing her own hCG dosage during her period, and that taking more would cause hunger since we know that both too high and too low an hCG dosage cause hunger.
So essentially, he felt and it seems possible that his patients experienced, a complete comfort/no hunger on the low calorie diet still during their menstrual cycle even though they weren’t taking hCG during that time.
That said, to be perfectly honest, I was just too nervous to stop injecting for that many days! So what I chose to do was to skip only 1-2 days of my heaviest flow days. I felt like this was kind of a nice in-between choice. I don’t recall this being a problem for me doing it this way.
So now with that background out of the way, let’s come to your situation.
You are expecting to have a 6 day period, during your last 6 days that you’d normally take hCG. And then the 72 hours starts where you’d normally do the 500 calorie without taking any more hCG as well.
I think there’s 2 options, and with the 2nd, some ways to troubleshoot effectively if need be:
SKIP ONLY HEAVIEST FLOW DAYS- INJECT VERY LAST DAYS OF P2
Stop injecting only your heaviest flow days- maybe 2 days- so that you will be injecting for the final 3-4 days of your round while still on your period. Then move to the 72 hours as normal w/o hCG and the vlcd.
SKIP INJECTING ENTIRE PERIOD – TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS
I think you could certainly try doing the no injecting all 6 days as well as the 72 hours- I’m not sure I’m brave enough to try it- BUT if you did this here’s a couple of ways to maybe handle any issues that come up as you go along:
- Skip but then if you do find yourself feeling abnormally hungry or unwell, take your injection afterall a little later in the day.
- Pay more attention to how you are feeling hunger-wise during the 72 hours, and if needed, raise your calories with P2 foods and consider that perhaps the hCG will be out of your system (whether you injected it or your body was producing it) at a faster rate than usual so that your P3 can start sooner in a sense- but to be safe you can keep your foods to P2 protocol just more of it.
My recommendation above is actually in keeping with the what some need to do anyway during the 72 hours- please see my full article on that topic to help you navigate that.
I hope this helps you decide what you’d like to try!
