Periods, eating disorders and overtraining
ceiswyn
Posts: 2,256 Member
At about the same time that I started suffering from an eating disorder (binge eating, albeit not officially diagnosed because it is literally impossible to get an appointment with my GP), I stopped having periods. I've also ramped up my training this year for a charity hike in September, and that is similarly something that can have this effect.
The thing is, this is something that has seriously improved my quality of life. My periods were a right pig (in the sense of bleeding like a stuck one) and the pre-period food cravings and exhaustion weren't exactly fun either. And I was stuck with all of that because hormonal contraception makes me suicidal.
So while obviously I'm addressing the binge eating issues, and a bit concerned about whether I'm overtraining, I'm not particularly worried about the amenhorrea.
Should I be? Are there aspects to this that I could be missing? Is there anything else I should be doing or not doing, or can I just relax and enjoy the side effect?
The thing is, this is something that has seriously improved my quality of life. My periods were a right pig (in the sense of bleeding like a stuck one) and the pre-period food cravings and exhaustion weren't exactly fun either. And I was stuck with all of that because hormonal contraception makes me suicidal.
So while obviously I'm addressing the binge eating issues, and a bit concerned about whether I'm overtraining, I'm not particularly worried about the amenhorrea.
Should I be? Are there aspects to this that I could be missing? Is there anything else I should be doing or not doing, or can I just relax and enjoy the side effect?
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Replies
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It indicates an imbalance in your hormones which can lead to other sideffects, the big one being infertility, and I was told it can lead to an increased risk of some cancers but I don’t know whether that’s right or not.0
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As a single woman in her 40s who doesn't want children, infertility would be an added bonus
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Are you sure it’s not menopause?8
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You’ve not mentioned how a long you’ve been period free, but if it’s just months as opposed to years I suspect it’s just a response to you changing a number of behaviours such as eating patterns, exercise and calorie intake. It used to happen to me (I was also not bothered and just revelled in the lack of pain, mess and inconvenience) from time to time, through stress, change of lifestyle etc. I think the longest I went without was around 9 months before they re-established.
I also don’t know how old you are, so there’s always early onset menopause, I guess?
Either way, I would make a concerted effort to see your doctor. (although I share the problem of GP appointments being impossible!)0 -
Absolutely certain. 42 is much too early for menopause in my family, I haven't had any menopausal symptoms, and menopause doesn't turn off regular heavy periods like shutting off a tap.1
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Obviously seeing a doctor would be the ideal, but my concern is that it's not going to be worth staying on the phone for the hour necessary to get through to appointments, and then taking a morning/afternoon off work, if all that happens is that the GP says 'oh, it's probably due to your binge eating and overtraining' and gives me advice I could get off the internet
If they're actually likely to be concerned and want to do blood tests and stuff, that's a bit different.2 -
They did tests for me turns out I was very low in iron.0
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What we’ve evolved to do with our GP is to actually go down to the practice and queue outside at 8am until they open the doors in the morning to try to get an appointment because, as you say, you can dial and redial for over an hour and by the time you do get through all the appointments that they are ‘releasing’ that day are taken! My daughter once counted 433 attempts before she got through!
Obviously, I don’t know about your doctors but can you make an appointment for some future date, they must have some you can book ahead for routine matters rather than on the day ‘emergencies’ as it were. Or maybe a practice nurse would be good enough, at those appointments are a little easier to get in my experience.
If you’ve been without periods for over a year I would think they might want to check your hormone levels and do some other blood work just to rule out other causes. I would give it some thought, anyway, although I do understand how it’s easy to feel that the whole process of getting to see someone is offputting.1 -
BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »What we’ve evolved to do with our GP is to actually go down to the practice and queue outside at 8am until they open the doors in the morning to try to get an appointment because, as you say, you can dial and redial for over an hour and by the time you do get through all the appointments that they are ‘releasing’ that day are taken! My daughter once counted 433 attempts before she got through!
Obviously, I don’t know about your doctors but can you make an appointment for some future date, they must have some you can book ahead for routine matters rather than on the day ‘emergencies’ as it were. Or maybe a practice nurse would be good enough, at those appointments are a little easier to get in my experience.
If you’ve been without periods for over a year I would think they might want to check your hormone levels and do some other blood work just to rule out other causes. I would give it some thought, anyway, although I do understand how it’s easy to feel that the whole process of getting to see someone is offputting.
1) I work an hour away from home and get there by public transport. Therefore in order to walk into the practice to make an appointment, I would need to take time off work. I am clearly not going to do that.
2) Trying to make an appointment for a future date, or with a practice nurse, still requires me to be able to get through to appointments. The last time I tried, I started at number 20 in the phone queue and after twenty minutes had got down to number 15. I cannot spend that amount of time on my mobile phone in a phone queue during working hours.
3) Thanks for the suggestions on how to manage my GP, but I would prefer it if you could just take my word that it's sufficiently difficult and time-consuming that I would really rather not do it if I'm not likely to get much value out of it.
ETA: Oh, and my last period was in December or January - I don't recall which - which would make it 8 or 9 months.9 -
Hannahwalksfar wrote: »They did tests for me turns out I was very low in iron.
I gave blood a couple of weeks ago and my iron was fine. I have a generally healthy and varied diet, and take supplements a couple of times a week just to make sure.
However if they are actually likely to want to do tests, rather than just writing it down to the obvious reasons, it might be worth having another go at the appointments line.2 -
You should double check that it's not being caused by low oestrogen levels as that can lead to osteoporosis - us women need all the bone strength we can get. I don't have experience myself to tell you whether they would do tests, but I do have a friend with an eating disorder whose periods stopped and her Dr did consistently tell her it was just her low weight and do no tests. I think if you mention eating problems, increased exercise and (I'm inferring) stress you will likely be told that's the cause. All thats said, I would still try, you never know and osteoporosis is no picnic.3
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I would still suggest seeing a doctor or NP when you can--there are other causes of amenorrhea that could have longer lasting health implications--you'll at least want to rule those out.
And since you have no plans for children any time soon--you might want to consider an IUD which can regulate your periods somewhat--there are some with very little hormone. Personally I have a Mirena (which is hormonal), but I haven't had periods at all with it--no bleeding, no monthly bloating, no moodiness--they last for 5 years and I'm on my second one. I know other people have had issues with it, but it's worth a consideration.3 -
You should double check that it's not being caused by low oestrogen levels as that can lead to osteoporosis - us women need all the bone strength we can get. I don't have experience myself to tell you whether they would do tests, but I do have a friend with an eating disorder whose periods stopped and her Dr did consistently tell her it was just her low weight and do no tests. I think if you mention eating problems, increased exercise and (I'm inferring) stress you will likely be told that's the cause. All thats said, I would still try, you never know and osteoporosis is no picnic.
That is exactly my past experience with other issues, which is why I'm not particularly interested in going through all the effort required to see a GP (why did several people woo that, by the way? Is my GP's appointments system and opening hours pseudoscience?) if all that's likely to happen is that I'm told something I already know
Given that there are not one but two obvious causes of my amenhorrea, I'm pretty willing to go with Occam's Razor for a bit. What I would like to know is whether there are any associated factors that I should be worrying about, and it sounds like there aren't.3 -
I would still suggest seeing a doctor or NP when you can--there are other causes of amenorrhea that could have longer lasting health implications--you'll at least want to rule those out.
And since you have no plans for children any time soon--you might want to consider an IUD which can regulate your periods somewhat--there are some with very little hormone. Personally I have a Mirena (which is hormonal), but I haven't had periods at all with it--no bleeding, no monthly bloating, no moodiness--they last for 5 years and I'm on my second one. I know other people have had issues with it, but it's worth a consideration.
I have, in fact, considered this extensively. As a result, I've used a plain IUD for birth control for decades. I haven't tried a hormonal one because I would rather suffer PMS and fountains of blood once a month than suicidal depression and insomnia every day. Maybe the lower levels of hormone in a Mirena wouldn't trigger the same symptoms as other hormonal forms of birth control; but it's not worth the risk.
All of which means that my options for not having the fountains of blood etc boil down to pregnancy, the menopause, or, as it turns out, this 4 -
OP. I understand the problems of getting to see an nhs GP. And they will probably tell you what you already suspect. But lack of periods is the sign something isn’t right with your body. Maybe you need some more specialist help around the binge eating.4
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Absolutely certain. 42 is much too early for menopause in my family, I haven't had any menopausal symptoms, and menopause doesn't turn off regular heavy periods like shutting off a tap.
It sure can. It did for me. I was going along as I always have with heavy, painful periods, then one day they just stopped. There was no tapering, or spotting for months, no hot flashes, or any other symptoms you usually hear of, they just stopped. Though I was a little older than you.
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cupcakesandproteinshakes wrote: »OP. I understand the problems of getting to see an nhs GP. And they will probably tell you what you already suspect. But lack of periods is the sign something isn’t right with your body. Maybe you need some more specialist help around the binge eating.
Yeah, trying to get to see a GP to talk about the binge eating was why I originally spent all that time on the phone trying to get through for an appointment. But given what I know about waiting lists for mental health issues in this area, I strongly suspect that I'm basically on my own for that one even if I could get past the first hurdle.
And again, given that there are not one but two obvious causes of my amenhorrea, I'm pretty willing to go with Occam's Razor for a bit. What I would like to know is whether there are any associated factors that I should be worrying about, and it sounds like you don't know any more than I do about that.4 -
Nope I don’t know yr right. I can only google as you can and that comes up with osteoporosis which is a concern. But if you do decide to go throghtbthe hassle of getting a Gp appointment you can insist on a referral to mental health services. I know there’s waiting lists. But at least you are on the road to getting the right help0
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Osteoporosis4
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Absolutely certain. 42 is much too early for menopause in my family, I haven't had any menopausal symptoms, and menopause doesn't turn off regular heavy periods like shutting off a tap.
I’m 39. I started peri-menopause at 35. No other women in my family started that young but it happens. I had no symptoms other than highly irregular periods for the first year. Id go 3-4 months between periods then sometimes have 2 in the same month (still do). I’d recommend getting your hormones checked to be sure.
Now, 4yr later I get to deal with all of the fun hair issues, hot flashes, etc.5 -
BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »What we’ve evolved to do with our GP is to actually go down to the practice and queue outside at 8am until they open the doors in the morning to try to get an appointment because, as you say, you can dial and redial for over an hour and by the time you do get through all the appointments that they are ‘releasing’ that day are taken! My daughter once counted 433 attempts before she got through!
Obviously, I don’t know about your doctors but can you make an appointment for some future date, they must have some you can book ahead for routine matters rather than on the day ‘emergencies’ as it were. Or maybe a practice nurse would be good enough, at those appointments are a little easier to get in my experience.
If you’ve been without periods for over a year I would think they might want to check your hormone levels and do some other blood work just to rule out other causes. I would give it some thought, anyway, although I do understand how it’s easy to feel that the whole process of getting to see someone is offputting.
1) I work an hour away from home and get there by public transport. Therefore in order to walk into the practice to make an appointment, I would need to take time off work. I am clearly not going to do that.
2) Trying to make an appointment for a future date, or with a practice nurse, still requires me to be able to get through to appointments. The last time I tried, I started at number 20 in the phone queue and after twenty minutes had got down to number 15. I cannot spend that amount of time on my mobile phone in a phone queue during working hours.
3) Thanks for the suggestions on how to manage my GP, but I would prefer it if you could just take my word that it's sufficiently difficult and time-consuming that I would really rather not do it if I'm not likely to get much value out of it.
ETA: Oh, and my last period was in December or January - I don't recall which - which would make it 8 or 9 months.
I hear ya - I'm in the US and with the VA. I went through a bunch of rigmarole for my knee (twice), and hip, and now that my elbow is acting up think I'm just going to go to an acupuncturist. (Not that I'm recommending that for you - I'm just commiserating about how sometimes it can take so long to accomplish so little.)
In my 30s when I became a full time yoga teacher and also had a very active lifestyle, my periods slowed to about once every 3 months for a while, but I eased back and they came back.1 -
Sounds like I should keep an eye out for osteoporosis, but that’s fairly slow to develop and I do a fair bit of strength work so I’m not immediately concerned about that. If I carry on getting no periods after my charity hike is done and my training eases up, I will have another go at getting to my GP 4
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up until now the overtraining part of your question hasn't been addressed.
What do you mean by overtraining?
And how much of a calorie deficit are you on?
Usually a very large deficit along with lots of training causes period loss - look at those bodybuilder people - MANY of them lose their periods. Do you eat that little and train that much?
You mention binge eating so i'm assuming that would be a 'no' for the undereating part.
I don't know and can't give advice, but yeah, I tend to agree with others that making a future-dated appointment at some time with a GP is probably the best thing to do. Could be so many things, menopause included.
As for hormone control, I use old skool copper IUD coz I, like you, cannot function with added hormones in my system. Copper IUD = bleeding like a stuck pig unfortunately. I'm a bit anti-hormonal birth control LOL (but just because of my experiences, which are not a reflection of the majority of the population)2 -
I'm in maintenance, but generally eating in a slight (250 kcal) deficit to try to compensate for the binge eating. Using a Cunning New Strategy I'm now two weeks out from my last binge and have lost about a pound to just squeak back into my preferred weight range.
I think my training routine is actually fairly reasonable:
Sunday: A 14-16 mile strenuous hike with the Ramblers Association
Monday: About 5 miles of general walking, plus a BodyBalance class
Tuesday: 5 miles of walking, plus a Barre Fit class
Wednesday: Official Rest Day - generally about 3 miles of walking
Thursday: 5 miles of walking, plus a BodyPump class
Friday: 5 miles of walking, maybe a BodyCombat class if I feel energetic
Saturday: 3+ miles of walking, BodyPump, BodyBalance
However fitting that around full-time work, commuting by train, and living alone with an incontinent cat leaves me very little time to rest. Thursdays are the worst: BodyPump finishes at 7:30pm, and given the need to shower, walk to the train station etc I leave the house at 8.15am and it's 9.30pm by the time I get home, never mind eat dinner, feed the cat, do any necessary carpet scrubbing, or anything else I need to do. I suspect tiredness may be a factor as well, and I intend to rethink my schedule a bit after the charity hike in mid-September.2 -
How long have your periods stopped for? Like they said - perimenopause can make them very irregular (I up to 10 months without one, then they come back again).1
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Pipsqueak1965 wrote: »How long have your periods stopped for? Like they said - perimenopause can make them very irregular (I up to 10 months without one, then they come back again).
As I said, the last one was in Dec or Jan - I can't remember which.
If this is early menopause (though that still seems unlikely to me given my family history and lack of any other menopausal symptoms), then all I can say is that I am OK with that 3 -
Judging by that you’re not actually having a rest day as you walk on that day.4
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Osteoporosis was my first thought/fear though your activity levels will combat this. Osteoporosis could be caused by low human growth hormone, that comes off the thyroid t3 production rather than the t4. low t3 can be related to both eating disorders/mental health problems and the kind of periods you mentioned. Getting diagnosed is a mine field because of "standard numbers", not considering levels which are comfortable for the individual.
From personal experience I would also be concerned about early onset endometrial changes which also can cause less frequent but extremely heavy periods. The treatment for this I have seen is progesterone in situe. This was given to a friend of mine and she no longer has the cellular changes, in a matter of weeks, which beats hands down the problems of a total hysterectomy. Progesterone is needed to balance the oestrogen at the, may be luteal stage of the cycle which causes the sheading of the uterine lining.
I envy your energy or stamina or is it determination. Best wishes for the Charity Hike in September. I hope you will be able to allow yourself time to recuperate in your training schedule before your event, I would hate for you to be unable to participate. You work so hard, for something unplanned to get in the way. This happened to my daughter when she was about to do her first marathon run, she has done the Moon Walk a couple of times.0 -
Hannahwalksfar wrote: »Judging by that you’re not actually having a rest day as you walk on that day.
Uh, doing a bit of gentle walking on a rest day is both normal and actually advised.
Plus it would be difficult to get to work if I didn't 1 -
Osteoporosis was my first thought/fear though your activity levels will combat this. Osteoporosis could be caused by low human growth hormone, that comes off the thyroid t3 production rather than the t4. low t3 can be related to both eating disorders/mental health problems and the kind of periods you mentioned. Getting diagnosed is a mine field because of "standard numbers", not considering levels which are comfortable for the individual.
From personal experience I would also be concerned about early onset endometrial changes which also can cause less frequent but extremely heavy periods. The treatment for this I have seen is progesterone in situe. This was given to a friend of mine and she no longer has the cellular changes, in a matter of weeks, which beats hands down the problems of a total hysterectomy. Progesterone is needed to balance the oestrogen at the, may be luteal stage of the cycle which causes the sheading of the uterine lining.
I envy your energy or stamina or is it determination. Best wishes for the Charity Hike in September. I hope you will be able to allow yourself time to recuperate in your training schedule before your event, I would hate for you to be unable to participate. You work so hard, for something unplanned to get in the way. This happened to my daughter when she was about to do her first marathon run, she has done the Moon Walk a couple of times.
Thankyou for your advice (I shall do some research on that), and for your good wishes!
I have been dealing with some hamstring issues, but I have some hip-strengthening exercises and my physio thinks I can be all better by hike-time. And he also said I could continue my normal exercise routine, although to be fair he didn't ask too many questions about what that actually is...0
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