What If I Don’t Get My Period?
There are many different situations which can result in not having a regular cycle. Loss of your period can be the result of various imbalances in the body. In this article, we will look at some of the causes and possible lifestyle changes which may help to correct the imbalance.
When you don’t get your period, the medical term is amenorrhea. There are two types of amenorrhea which are referred to as primary and secondary. Primary amenorrhea is when a teenage girl has reached or passed the age of 16 and still hasn’t had her first period. Most girls will begin menstruating between the ages of 9 and 18 with 12 years being the average age.
Secondary amenorrhea is when a woman has stopped menstruating for at least three months. This is the most common form of amenorrhea. Obviously, the first possibility we would consider is pregnancy, but once that is ruled out the following are some possibilities:
Low Body Weight
Weighing 10% below what is considered normal for your height can cause changes in your body chemistry including loss of ovulation. Women who do strenuous exercises like gymnastics or running a marathon may not have a period as the body is directing all of its energy toward the physical exertions. Severely restricting the amount of calories you eat, as in dieting, can also stop the production of hormones needed for ovulation
The most obvious answer to this condition is to eat more in the way of nutritious, whole fresh foods. However, if your microbiome is out of balance, you may not be able to uptake the nutrients from the foods you are eating. Therefore, along with diet, I would seriously consider incorporating some type of pre and probiotics into your daily routine in order to help a possible leaky gut and to help build up the microflora. Eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables will help to get bacteria into the gut along with the fiber to feed the microflora and eating fermented foods such as sauerkraut, yogurt, kefir, etc. You can also take pre and pro biotic supplements.
Stress
Stress can throw off your hormones, change your daily routine and even affect the hypothalamus, which is the part of your brain responsible for regulating your period.
Stress affects every part of the body and can actually become life-threatening if we do not learn how to handle it. We can’t always do anything about the challenges which come into our life, but we can learn different strategies for releasing and handling the stress in our daily lives. A few suggestions might include walking barefoot through the grass, soaking in a hot tub, learning to pray or meditate, diffusing essential oils, and exercising.
Obesity
Obesity can cause changes in your hormones which may stop you from cycling. If you're overweight, your body may produce an excess amount of estrogen, one of the hormones that regulates the reproductive system in women. Excess estrogen can affect how often you have periods and can also cause your periods to stop.
Finding a way to lose the excess weight can help our health, energy and hormone imbalances. There is nothing healthy about excess weight. In fact, when women put on a lot of extra weight around the middle, it is usually indicative of being estrogen-dominant. Estrogen likes to hang out in fat cells. Drinking lots of pure water along with eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables is a good way to start moving toward a healthy weight. There are lots of different weight-loss programs out there, but just remember that doing anything extreme or causing too much weight-loss too fast will usually just lead to more imbalances. It is always best to make healthy, permanent lifestyle changes as opposed to going on the latest fad diet.
Birth Control
You may experience a change in your cycle when you go on or off birth control. Birth control pills contain the hormones estrogen and progestin, which prevent your ovaries from releasing eggs. It can take up to six months for your cycle to become consistent again after stopping the pill. Other types of contraceptives that are implanted or injected can cause missed periods as well.
The more natural forms of birth control will always be the healthiest. Any time you change the natural ebb and flow of your hormones, you are going to cause an imbalance. In this particular situation, it is always up to each individual/couple to decide what is going to work best for them.
Chronic Disease
Diseases such as diabetes and celiac disease can affect your menstrual cycle. Changes in blood sugar are linked to hormonal changes, so even though it’s rare, poorly controlled diabetes could cause your period to be irregular. Celiac disease causes inflammation that can lead to damage in your small intestine which may prevent your body from absorbing key nutrients. This can cause late or missed periods.
Obviously, it will take many other articles to touch on all of the different chronic diseases which could cause your cycle to be disrupted, but this is a perfect example of how the body works together and you cannot just focus on the missed period. If there is a chronic condition manifesting itself in the body – the first thing you have to do is to address the chronic condition before you can hope to address the hormonal imbalance.
PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)
PCOS is a condition that causes your body to produce more of the male hormone androgen. Cysts form on the ovaries as a result of this hormone that causes an imbalance which can make ovulation irregular or stop it all together. Polycystic ovaries contain a large number of harmless follicles, which are underdeveloped sacs in which eggs develop. Quite often, these sacs are unable to release an egg, which means ovulation doesn’t take place.
With PCOS, the first thing that absolutely has to be addressed is diet and weight. I have seen this condition corrected and cured, but you have to be willing to make the lifestyle changes necessary in order to correct the imbalance. Once you have started to put the basics in place, you can add herbal hormone supplements, red raspberry leaf tea, wheatgerm oil and other modalities which will help to bring the body back into balance.
Early perimenopause
Most women begin menopause between ages 45 to 55. Women who develop symptoms around age 40 or earlier are considered to have early perimenopause. This could be due to an early hysterectomy or to the fact that your egg supply is winding down. The result can be missed periods and/or eventually the end of menstruation. Around 1 in 100 women will go through menopause before the age of 40. This is known as premature menopause or premature ovarian failure. Women enter menopause when they have not had a period for at least 12 months. The average age for entering menopause in the United States is 52 years old. However, the transition to menopause, known as perimenopause, may begin ten years earlier.
Symptoms of perimenopause may include: Irregular periods, heavier or lighter periods, hot flashes, problems sleeping, mood swings or irritability, vaginal dryness, loss of interest in being intimate.
Like PCOS, this tends to be brought on due to hormonal imbalances, poor nutrition and/or poor health. Exceptions would be an early hysterectomy or extreme exercise as in an Olympic athlete.
Thyroid Issue
The thyroid is a gland that produces hormones to help regulate the body’s metabolism. An overactive or underactive thyroid gland could also be the cause of late or missed periods. The thyroid regulates your body’s metabolism, so hormone levels can be affected as well. Hypothyroidism is an underactive thyroid which does not produce enough hormones. Hyperthyroidism is an overactive thyroid which can result in the levels of thyroid hormones being too high. Other symptoms might include: fatigue or extreme tiredness over a prolonged period of time, hair loss, unexplained weight loss or gain, or always feeling cold or being warm all the time.
Kelp, which is a plant that grows in the ocean is a very specific food for the thyroid. It is high in organic iodine, so if I were dealing with an imbalance with the thyroid – I would definitely look for a formula containing kelp. This condition also has a direct link to the microbiome, so working on gut health along with feeding the thyroid can help to bring the thyroid back into balance.
All of these conditions or symptoms are indicators that the body is out of balance. When we are trying to correct any type of imbalance, we have to look at the body as a whole and not just focus on the area where the symptoms are manifesting. Our body is an amazing, miraculous vehicle which is constantly interacting within itself.
No matter what topic we are addressing, when we are talking about bringing the body back into balance we always have to return to the basics:
Are we getting enough fresh, live food to eat in the form of fresh fruits and vegetables?
Are we drinking enough pure, clean water every day?
Do we go for a walk daily or have some type of daily exercise routine?
Are we getting out into the fresh air and breathing deeply?
Are we getting enough sunlight in our life?
Have we learned how to manage the stress in our life?
These seem like such simple questions, but when it comes to our health and keeping our body balanced – they are essential! Until we learn how to apply these basic principles in our life, we are going to be fighting an uphill battle. I truly believe there are no incurable diseases if we give the body what it needs to work with. However, there are incurable people because they simply will not apply these basic principles in their life or they have not come to understand how important they are. Once these basics are in place, there are many herbs, oils, homeopathics and other modalities which we can use to help bring balance into our life – including regulating our menstrual cycles.
