Maddy

Or...........

to look at it another way..................

prolonged lack of menstruation can increase the risk of endometrial cancer and can also cause irrevocable bone loss and increased chance of osteoporosis ....

In amenorrheic women, the levels of female reproductive hormones are not sufficient to stimulate menstruation. This condition is sometimes associated with malnutrition, such as that which occurs in anorexia nervosa, or with extreme exercise, which puts excessive nutritional and other demands on the body.

2 3 An association between stress and amenorrhea has also been demonstrated.

4 Amenorrhea may also result from potentially serious disorders of the ovaries, the hypothalamus, or the pituitary gland; therefore, a physician should always evaluate chronic absence of menstrual cycles. Prolonged amenorrhea can result in early bone loss and increased risk of osteoporosis

What are the symptoms of amenorrhea?
Women with amenorrhea may have symptoms of absent periods, increased facial hair, decreased pubic and armpit hair, deeper voice, decreased breast size, and secretions from the breast.

Dietary changes that may be helpful
It has long been known that extreme dietary restriction can cause amenorrhea.8 9 When such restriction is due to eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia,10 professional treatment is necessary. Athletic amenorrheic women may have low intakes of calories and other nutrients, and there are reports of some athletes resuming menstruation after adding to their diet a daily nutritional beverage containing additional calories, protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamins, and minerals.11 12 However, these women also decreased their exercise intensity, which likely contributed to normalization of their menstrual function.

When compared with women who menstruate regularly, women who menstruate infrequently or not at all often have lower dietary intakes of fat (especially saturated fat), protein, and total calories, as well as a greater proportion of carbohydrate and fiber in their diet.13 14 15 In preliminary studies of normal-weight women with no obvious eating disorders, women who experienced amenorrhea had diets described as “close to normal” but significantly low in fat. These women had lower percentages of body fat as well.16 17 In one of these studies, regular menstruation returned in women who increased their fat intake and percentage of body fat to normal over four months.18

Specific diets may be associated with increased risk of amenorrhea. A strict raw foods diet was found in one preliminary study to be strongly associated with weight loss and amenorrhea.19 Vegetarians have been studied for their susceptibility to amenorrhea, but the results so far have been inconsistent.20 Vegetarian diets tend to be rich in the antioxidant nutrients known as carotenes. Women with excessive carotene levels in their blood appear to be at higher risk of amenorrhea than women with normal levels,21 22 and, while research has not shown high carotene levels to directly cause amenorrhea, they may constitute a contributing factor.23 In one preliminary study, women with high levels of both carotenes and amenorrhea had predominantly vegetarian diets, and reducing dietary intake of carotenes led to lower carotene levels and improvement in their amenorrhea.24

Lifestyle changes that may be helpful

Moderate exercise has many benefits to the overall health of premenopausal women, but intensive or excessive exercise can contribute to amenorrhea and increase the risk of early bone loss due to detrimental effects on hormone balance.34 Exercise typically increases bone density, but a study of dancers with amenorrhea found that bone density measurements remained below normal for the entire two-year duration of the study.

Excessive stress causes the body to produce increased amounts of the adrenal hormone cortisol, and several studies have linked high cortisol levels to low levels of reproductive hormones and to amenorrhea.54 55 56 In one study, amenorrheic women showed a greater increase in cortisol in response to stress than did women with normal menstrual cycles.57 No research has been done to evaluate stress reduction interventions for the treatment of amenorrhea.


A preliminary trial showed that bone loss occurred over a one-year period in amenorrheic exercising women despite daily supplementation with 1,200 mg of calcium and 400 IU of vitamin D.60


Prolactin is a hormone that may be elevated in some cases of amenorrhea.

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