Menstrual periods can be annoying (or even scary) for women when they don’t show up as and when due. This can be due to a lot of factors that aren’t always obvious or connected. However, for women, it is almost as if everything is connected. As such, a shift in A can result in a shift in not just B, but Q.
So, if you would like to find out why your menstrual periods are heavy, erratic, or missing altogether, and what to do about it, read on…
1. Rigorous Exercise
Heard of marathon runners losing their periods? It is not a myth. Frequent rigorous exercise combined with low body fat puts stress on your body, and this stress tells your brain to stop producing reproductive hormones.
2. Being overweight or underweight
Carrying extra pounds does more than sabotage your skinny jeans. Excess fat cells result in elevated levels of oestrogen, which can ultimately stop your ovaries from releasing an egg.
However, your body has the opposite reaction when you are underweight; it does not produce enough oestrogen, and you need adequate levels of oestrogen to build your uterine lining and have a period.
3. Taking prescription drugs
Any medication that involves hormones, like thyroid medication (and thyroid problems in general), steroids, or antipsychotics (which release a hormone, dopamine) can influence your period.
4. Poor sleep hygiene
Inadequate sleep does more than make you feel off, it can also throw off your cycle, too. In fact, people who work irregular hours (like nurses and flight attendants) are more likely to experience irregular periods, according to a review published in Sleep Medicine.
5. Stress
Stressful conditions are not conducive for conception or birth. This is backed up by human evolution over time. As such, a regular cycle is one of the first things to take a backseat when women are being stressed on a consistent basis. This explains why stressed-out women were less likely to conceive than their more settled counterparts.
