Why Did I Miss My Second Period?
It's very common to see women who have got their first periods (yay, congrats!) miss their second or third. Common, not normal.
You might be reading this article hoping for a scientific explanation. Something in the evidence to suggest that consecutive cycles take a while to normalize while your hormones get themselves back in check.
While that’s true to a degree because hormones are still regulating and finding their groove, missing your next periods or seeing them push back to 40, 50 or even 60+ days is a little more than your body just “figuring things out” still.
In this article we're going to go over the most common reasons I see for women with a history of hypothalamic amenorrhea to not get their next periods. But FIRST – if you’d rather watch/listen than read, here is the YouTube version of this video. I throw a few more details in.
Reason #1
You started eating a little less (maybe without realising)
I’m going to jump straight into the main culprit that I see: under-eating again. This happens for a bunch of reasons and after a while of coaching women 1:1, talking with them in group calls and going through this myself, I’m have enough experience to know when this is what’s happening.
I see it one of 4 ways:
Getting relaxed with nutrition
After getting your first period, you might relax a little and breathe a little sigh of relief – you did it! You can stop being so focused on getting your period back now because it’s here!...Well, that’s not true.
One period is great, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
More often than not your cycle may need a few rounds of your cycle to look for other areas that need optimization and to work on that. This means that you need to keep eating as though you’re in recovery. Don’t get complacent – constant vigilance!
Getting fearful of continuing with recovery
Something about getting your first period, after the celebration of it, hits us with a feeling of "oh shit, I really DID gain weight and rest" *insert hardwired judgements and feelings we have around people who gain weight and rest* which causes us some stress. That and the thought of "ok...now I'm recovered so I no longer have an excuse to be resting".
That's my experience of what's happening and what I see often, but I encourage you to dig deeper into why this is coming up for you. Here are some journal prompts:
What does having your period back mean?
When you feel anxious, what is the exact thought(s) you're having?
What is the core lie behind the thought? i.e "I think that having my first period confirms that I've gained weight and the core lie there is that I'm unattractive. Being unattractive means that I'm less valuable to people around me"
Really break it down until you get to the raw truth of it all. It's helpful!
Getting back to training too hard, without a proper protocol
Sometimes we feel ready to start moving our body again, and that’s ok. I’m actually not the HA coach that will tell you exercise is bad, but I will tell you that:
You don’t want to make any major changes too soon
You need to train smart now, not hard
But we often don’t do that, we often return to our old way of training. We might put some make up on it to make it look pretty and say that it’s not as intense as before, but very quickly it’s just a pig with lipstick on it. It ain’t pretty.
Go into your exercise with the goal of eliciting the most response with the least amount of work. That means that if there’s gains, fitness or performance that can be made in just one or two workout sessions a week, that’s what you should aim for. HINT: After recovery there is always enough gains to be made in just 1-2 sessions a week, so be comfortable with taking it slow.
I recommend having a support network or getting an HA coach to help you along side your new program or trainer to make sure that your program is optimal for you at this time.
Returning to a stressful situation
Kind of like the above exercise example, we return to our stressful lives. Re-filling our schedule with to-do’s, hanging out with toxic people again or upping our workload at work (that’s me!). Again, you can put lipstick on a pig but I know that it’s a pig! But really honest with yourself here, are you or are you not returning into a stressful environment that may cause you to experience too much stress for your body to handle or cause you to lean on old habits like controlling your food and exercise as a stress reducer?
Reason #2
You need more nutrients
Bringing it back to food for a second, I can’t not talk about nutrients when it comes to periods. This one comes up a lot because I may see women continue to get their next periods...but they don’t look great. Long follicular phases, missed or delayed ovulation, period pain, short luteal phases, short menstrual phases, heavy bleeds – all the things.
Look, it’s important to eat enough for HA recovery and if I’ve said it once I’ve said it a million times: you can’t out supplement a diet – but once you have your period, you want it to look and perform well. There are certain criteria that indicate if your period is looking good:
Healthy follicular/pre-ovulatory phase
Clear cervical mucus production and ovulation
Healthy luteal/post-ovulatory phase
Healthy menstruation phase
Optimal pre and post ovulatory basal body temperatures
And more.
If you’re not nourishing your body, your cycle may not optimize to reach all of these standards. So, once you’ve got your period back I recommend you get into cycle charting and learn how to assess the progress of your cycle and learn about the right nutrition and supplementation for healthy cycle and egg quality.
This is something that I work with my clients on, so even if you’re recovered we can work together to optimize and make sure that your cycle is healthy and that you don’t get hypothalamic amenorrhea again!
