10 Reasons for a Missing Period
If you have a missing period for any amount of time, that is a signal your body is trying to send you that something is imbalanced. Your hormones are driving the bus that leads you to your menstruation every month. If your hormones are too low or too high, the bus will take a turn in the opposite away from menstruation. Hormone levels can be greatly impacted by your lifestyle and nutrition, so it is important to figure out what the root causes are for your missing period.
Here are 10 reasons for a missing period:
1. Undereating
Undereating is one of the reasons for a missing period because of its effect on hormone levels. Undereating refers to the decrease in your calorie intake below your energy output per day. If undereating is intentional to the point of starvation, then this can be a symptom of anorexia nervosa. Another form of food restriction comes from the binge and purge cycle stemming from bulimia. Though every case is different, it is important to signal that these behaviors are possible cases for what causes low estrogen levels, inevitably low estrogen can lead to a missing period. These undereating patterns put our body into a state of panic and stress because we are trying to survive at an energy level insufficient for our current size. From this stress, estrogen and progesterone levels decrease because we are not prepared for pregnancy. Our body fat percentage is most likely decreasing as well due to the under eating and therefore can be one of the reasons for a missing period.
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2. Overexercising
In addition to undereating, over-exercising puts a similar result on the body in terms of estrogen levels. Over-exercising can be what causes a missing period because of the high stress it puts on the body. Over-exercising can be identified as 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.
3. Birth Control
Your birth control may be the reason you have a missing period. Many oral contraceptives reduce pregnancy by inhibiting ovulation and thinning the endometrial lining. These results can affect different people in more intense ways which causes a loss of period. Many women start taking the pill in order to reduce their heavy flow of a cycle, so it would make sense that if you didn’t have heavy before taking birth control, then now you might have a missing period every once in a while. In addition, you do not ovulate when on birth control. The menstrual cycle while taking birth control is really just the shedding of the endometrial lining as a response to the hormone levels dropping temporarily. Usually, the pills during the menstrual cycle week are just sugar placebo pills with no hormones, so the body releases some blood during this week but it is not due to ovulation.
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4. Post-Pill Amenorrhea
Post-pill amenorrhea occurs when you have a missing period for 3 months after you stop your use of the birth control pill. Having a missing period during the time after you stop using the pill occurs because your body is trying to reboot and relearn how to produce its own hormones again in the proper amounts. When you take the birth control pill, you are shutting off the brain-ovary connection which normally produces hormones. Instead, when you are on the pill, you are ingesting artificial forms of hormones that control all your levels. A missing period after stopping birth control occurs because the normal ingestion of the hormones is not occurring and the body has not yet adapted to producing the right amount of hormones for stable ovulation and menstrual period.
Source: Book on the Menstrual Cycle, 25681845
5. Stress
Stress can be a huge indicator of why you are having a missing period. The stress response in the body produces cortisol which can counter your normal hormone levels for estrogen and progesterone. Ovulation is dependent on proper hormone levels especially progesterone which is heavily dependent on proper cortisol levels. When cortisol levels are high, progesterone can drop to very low levels because if you are stressed, your body does not want to prepare for pregnancy because that is energy taxing and not a priority. If you do not ovulate you will have a missing period and this is how stress affects the body and the menstrual cycle.
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6. Hypothyroidism
Low thyroid or hypothyroidism, can also explain a missing period. 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 missing period.
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7. High Prolactin
Another reason for a missing period is high prolactin. Prolactin is a hormone typically released right after childbirth and all throughout the period when a woman is breastfeeding. Its function is to provide the milk from the mammary glands in the breast in order for a mother to provide for her baby. During this time prolactin is going to lower progesterone resulting in a missing period. Now, prolactin is not just being produced during breastfeeding, many women can have a missing period due to high prolactin without having been pregnant. High prolactin in women that are not preparing to breastfeed can occur due to stress, thyroid issues, alcohol, and undereating.
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8. Primary Ovarian Insufficiency
A missing period can also be rooted in primary ovarian insufficiency or diminished ovarian reserve. The ovarian reserve is the reproductive potential for a female given her hormone levels and 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, the lower estrogen production due to this can be what causes a missing period.
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9. PCOS
One of the three diagnostic criteria for PCOS is an irregular or missing period. This is because those with PCOS have lower estrogen and progesterone levels due to an offset caused by increased testosterone and androgens. Females always have testosterone levels that should be kept typically low, but in those with PCOS, it can be much higher causing a decrease in estrogen and progesterone.
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10. Low Body Weight
Low body weight is another reason that you can be missing your period. This is because the female body needs about 17% body fat percentage in order to maintain a healthy period. Estrogen is released from the ovaries, adrenal glands, and fat tissue. When body fat is low there is not much mass that can produce hormones and as a result, low estrogen can occur resulting in a missing period. In general too when you drop bodyweight, this can cause stress on the body because it thinks that a famine is occurring. As a result, cortisol can spike which will create an imbalance in estrogen and progesterone.
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