Anyone experiencing amenorrhea?

This is a section of an article that I found very interesting.

Secondary amenorrhea. Patients with secondary amenorrhea usually can be differentiated from those with other causes of this problem by careful history. However, it is sometimes difficult to uncover the eating problems except by specific questions concerning diet (such as consumption of low calorie food, diet sodas, low calorie salad dressing, etc.) in a woman who is of normal or slightly under weight. There is compelling evidence that the hypothalamic amenorrhea associated with exercise is due to chronic inadequate or restrictive caloric intake in the face of a large exercise load. However, disorders of androgen excess, pituitary tumors, in particular prolactin secreting, and rare tumors of the third ventricle, or other conditions profound enough to cause chronic malnutrition and weight loss should be ruled out.

Exercise induced amenorrhea presents generally in a young patient who prior to the onset of amenorrhea has had multiple metabolic and physiologic events that have inhibited the normal pulsality of LH and FSH secretion. These events are most likely subtle and do not manifest themselves until these insults are repeated and chronic and eventually menses stop. Subtle buffers that protect the reproductive system are affected: the most obvious is adequate weight or, as suggested by recent work, adequate body fat and leptin levels. The patients with exercise or weight loss related amenorrhea invariably are below or near so-called “ideal weight” and generally have low body fat and body mass index. They may have lost significant weight while exercising and may have obsessive eating problems including low fat and avoidance of red meat and all desserts. The diagnosis can be pinpointed in the competitive athlete with low gonadotropins, particularly low LH, normal prolactin, a negative pregnancy test, and no signs of androgenization such as acne, hair growth, or history of menarchial onset of irregular menses associated with signs of androgen excess. The typical patient with this problem will resist changing her behavior, particularly gaining weight or decreasing her exercise load. This is particularly true of the ballet dancer or competitive athlete. However, a change in eating habits, exercise patterns, and an increase in weight is the most effective method of reversing the problem.

I am not currently experiencing amenorrhea, but I was very athletic and active growing up. I probably only had a handful of periods throughout high school while I was participating in all of my sports (gymnastics, swim, track and cheer-so year round activities). Once I got to college and slowed down, my period became regular and has been ever since.

How much are you exercising? I can't imagine it would be your weight loss; so that's why I was curious how much you are working out.

Good luck and congrats on your success so far!

I am actually not exercising that much anymore. I was exercising probably 6 days a week for only about an hour at a time this summer, but now I have cut back to two days of 30 minute aerobics/strength training and maybe a day or two of cardio a week. I've still been trying to lose weight so I've been eating anywhere from 1200-1500 calories a day for some time now. She thought it was because of the sudden shock in body fat since last spring. It's frusterating!