Can Stress Delay Your Period?
Stress can delay your period. When it comes to our period, managing stress will take precedence over producing our sex hormones. Many nutrients are building blocks for both progesterone, a hormone that helps us ovulate, and cortisol, our stress hormone. Due to this progesterone levels can decrease as a result of high stress, which will cause a delay in ovulation and a delay in period. Delaying your period can come in the form of a missing period, a late period, or no period.
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Here are considerations if your period is late, or missing:
1. Delayed Ovulation
Can stress delay your period? Yes, because stress can cause a delay in ovulation. As mentioned, many nutrients are building blocks for both progesterone, a hormone that helps us ovulate, and cortisol, our stress hormone. Stress also causes a delay in ovulation because research has found that cortisol can disrupt the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge. This surge typically occurs right before ovulation, which provides reasoning for how stress affects your period.
Additionally, our sympathetic nervous system, which increases our stress response, can delay ovulation as a protective mechanism. Ovulation takes energy to release the egg, prepare for pregnancy, and if fertilization doesn’t occur, menstruation. If the body is under stress, cortisol is released and the sympathetic nervous system is activated because your body is perceiving a threat and wants to conserve energy for defense instead of preparing for reproduction.
2. Undereating
Can stress delay your period? Yes, because undereating can lead to a large internal stress response. Undereating is when you eat less food than you burn throughout the day. Operating at a negative energy balance is not our body’s preferred way to survive because it is not getting enough energy. A diet is perceived by our body the same way we perceive a famine. Our body wants to survive so it will set off as many internal alarms to try to get us to not starve. These alarms will push us into a state of stress. As a result, eating more is how you would bring back your period. If you are struggling with your relationship with food or are restricting or using food as a source of control it can be really helpful to work with a therapist and a dietitian to help you uncover the root of how you have developed this relationship with food. Simply saying “just eat more” is not going to be helpful if we have mental blocks around hearing that recommendation.
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3. Overexercising
Can stress delay your period? Yes, in addition to undereating, over-exercising elicits a similar stress response in the body which can delay your period. Over-exercising is any exercise performed at a high frequency and intensity during the week with minimal to no rest days. It is important to note that exercising, in general, is okay and actually beneficial for hormone levels, but it is the excessive nature of exercise that is harmful. The main issue with this is that our bodies need a stable body fat percentage to maintain a normal menstrual cycle, and estrogen levels will drop as body fat drops. As a rule of thumb, most females need at least 17% body fat to maintain a normal menstrual cycle to ovulate. Additionally, over-exercising, especially in endurance athletes, puts a large stress on the body from the impact on our bones and the large energy output. If you are overexercising your body has a hard time recovering and will not prioritize a menstrual cycle or ovulation because those things require a lot of energy, this results in you missing your period.
4. Hypothyroidism
Can stress delay your period? Yes, because having a low thyroid or hypothyroidism, can elicit a stress response in the body or can be caused by high stress. The thyroid is a gland in our throat that needs to release hormones to maintain a stable metabolism among other things. If these hormones are not released as frequently as they should, then this is called low thyroid or in more intense situations, hypothyroidism. As mentioned low thyroid and high prolactin have a connection to what causes low progesterone. Our body will try to stimulate more thyroid output, so additional hormones in the brain, specifically the hypothalamus, will be released to try to generate more thyroid hormones. These hormones, unfortunately, can also increase prolactin production and will therefore decrease progesterone. Decreasing progesterone as we know will affect the build-up of the endometrial lining and is a reason for a delayed period.
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5. Conditions to consider
PCOS
Can stress delay your period? Yes, in those with PCOS or polycystic ovarian syndrome there can be a higher level of stress which could impact a delayed period. High-stress levels can increase DHEA which is one of the androgens that is high in those with PCOS as one of the diagnostic criteria. This stress can be due to decreased fertility because when women have too high of androgens, they will have lower progesterone and estrogen levels which will delay their period and decrease fertility chances. In addition, another one of the diagnostic criteria for PCOS is delayed or missing period. This is because those with PCOS have lower estrogen and progesterone levels due to an offset caused by increased testosterone and/or DHEA.
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Hypothalamic Amenorrhea
Can stress delay your period? Yes, when you are stressed, the hypothalamus can be greatly impacted causing a delay in your period. The hypothalamus is an area in the brain that controls many of our involuntary actions such as breathing, heartbeat, and our period. Attached to it is the pituitary gland, which is responsible for producing many of the hormones. These hormones are very powerful that when they are not balanced, can cause you to lose your period completely. One important hormone specifically that is affected it GnRH, which when released will cause FSH and LH, other reproductive hormones, to be excreted and promote ovulation. Amenorrhea is when you do not have a period for 3 consecutive cycles. So as a result, hypothalamic amenorrhea is when you do not have a period for 3 consecutive months due to the low production of the pituitary gland in the brain caused by hypothalamic stress.
Source: NIH
Primary Ovarian Insufficiency
Can stress delay your period? Yes, because when you have had failed pregnancy attempts, this leads women to have increased stress levels which further can delay their period. The ovarian reserve is the reproductive potential for a female given her hormone levels and the quality and quantity of existing eggs in the ovaries. Primary ovarian insufficiency means that there is a decreased reproductive potential because of decreased hormone levels such as estrogen, lower quantity, and/or quality of eggs. Because the body has this decreased capability for reproduction, many women can increase their stress levels during this time which further delays their period.
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Ways to support your body if stress is delaying your period:
Eat consistently & avoid skipping meals
Doing this will help you stabilize insulin levels and help you get all the nutrients you need for hormone production.
Create a stress toolkit
Finding what works best for you in terms of managing stress is so important in order to have a better relationship with yourself and your body.
Get good quality sleep
Sleep and stress work hand in hand, if one is imbalanced, chances are so is the other.
Balance blood sugar
Doing this will greatly improve blood sugar and insulin levels which will regulate estrogen and progesterone.
Scale back on cardio
Sometimes cardio can be a lot on your body, so it is important to listen to your body and give it a break from high-intensity cardio sometimes.
Do moderate & lower intensity movement
This will also help you listen to your body, and help manage stress levels.
Explore your relationship with food
Try to pay attention to any subconscious food rules you make for yourself in your head and question your rationale for why you make those rules and work to push them away. Eating should be a freeing experience.
Identify food sensitivities
When you are having gas, bloating, diarrhea, or any other GI distress, take notes on what you ate that day as exact as you can so you can identify those food sensitivities.
Understand why your period is missing
Your period could be missing for a number of reasons, and it is important to uncover those root causes because chances are your period is not the only thing that is taking a negative impact from imbalanced hormones.
