<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Mary Courtney shared with us her own observations on the effects of the menstrual cycle on her own gut motility, cramps etc. As some of you may know, we have been looking at the urinary peptide profiles of people with autism for some time now but, as in all experiments, we sometimes get "false positives" from amongst the normal population. It seems that in some women there is an increase in material at certain times of the month and we suspect that peptide material is leaking through the gut wall in greater than normal quantities at this time. Our results would not (yet) stand up to critical analysis but the trends are pretty clear. Basically, our model would support that proposed by your GI specialist except that we would add that the hormones, as well as affecting gut motility could also affect gut permeability. These peptides might, in their turn, cause other effects in the body. Of course, if foods liable to produce these suspicious peptides (eg gluten containers) are avoided the problems would be minimised. We will be looking at this in greater detail over the next few months and it is possible that the story may collapse when we do. Perhaps I should not use this forum for such speculation but I thought it might be of interest. It would be interesting to know whether women who have gone gluten free have observed any reduction in PMT symptoms. Paul Shattock