Factors affecting period
Can stress, anxiety and/or depression affect your period? Like, make you miss it? My period has always been pretty heavy with minimal pain (when I first got it it was light) and last month it didn't come. There was some (tmi) discharge that made me think it was coming, but there was never any blood. Last year, there was a time when I missed my period for around 5 months. My doctor didn't say there was any problem then, she said it could be stress. Lately my depression had been getting much much worse, and I still have anxiety. Could this be why I missed my period? I'd also like to add that there's no possible way I could be pregnant, so that's not a factor.
@ChristmasTreesInTheMoonlight - Hi lovely, as your doctor said, stress and other things can absolutely have an impact on your period. All of those things even though they seem like they are just mentally based also have physical impacts on you and one of those is that it can mess with your period a bit. Additionally, as Marky mentioned, periods can be especially irregular when you're younger. After a couple years for many it will have steadied out, but for others it takes much longer to become regular.
All this to say it sounds like there are probably plenty of reasons it could be irregular that aren't anything huge to worry about, but it never hurts to talk about these concerns with your doctor!
Take care, and if you ever need to talk about anything, you're more than welcome to message me. :)
@Anomalia thank you so much. I also realized it could be because of my calorie intake, I'm not sure that 1,000 cal or less a day is healthy
@ChristmasTreesInTheMoonlight - You are correct that it probably isn't healthy to be eating so little and it can ABSOLUTELY impact your period. Actually, one of the symptoms of anorexia is amenorrhea, or loss of period. If this is something you need to talk about (and I do recommend it!), you can absolutely reach out to me or another listener.
Certainly it is a factor, tough for 5 months?
when I have gone through heavy stress or anxiety my period could end up being 2 weeks late, the pain is also worse depending on how much stress or anxiety I feel.