topic WOMEN: Stress/Anxiety affecting menstruation in Anxiety

WOMEN: Stress/Anxiety affecting menstruation

245AM — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 06:06:50 GMT

Has anyone experienced a very late period due to intense weeks/months of stress and anxiety or a traumatic experience?

I've been to my doctor and am definitely not pregnant, and she believes it's mostly stress related so we have discussed some techniques and practices I can use in order to lower stress and control spiral thinking - and most importantly stop focusing on my period being late.

I was just wondering if anyone out there has ever experienced this? If you were late due to stress, how late?

WOMEN: Stress/Anxiety affecting menstruation

Tinkerbell51 — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 06:20:06 GMT

Hi 245AM, it's happened to me a couple of times. Once when I went through a major depressive episode (I don't remember the specifics that well though as it was a long time ago), and again about 4 years ago in the lead up to my wedding. At that point it was maybe 10 weeks between periods. I lost a bit of weight and was exercising quite a bit at that time (for stress relief ironically), as well as dealing with a stressful job, so it was just an unusual time. It did come back the day prior to my wedding! Did your GP run any blood tests? Sometimes they can show hormonal imbalances (I remember this at least from the first episode).

WOMEN: Stress/Anxiety affecting menstruation

245AM — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 08:19:45 GMT

Hi Tinkerbell51,
Thank you so much for your reply! At this point it's about 2 weeks late. My GP has arranged for me to get a blood test, but has said for best results I need to have it done on day 2 of my period, so I'm still waiting to get it to find out... very frustrating haha.

I really appreciate your reply and it has definitely made me feel less alone and less stressed.

WOMEN: Stress/Anxiety affecting menstruation

Tinkerbell51 — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 10:02:54 GMT

That is frustrating! Hopefully it's not too far away anyway, funny how sometimes you're actually wishing it to arrive!

And no worries, you're definitely not alone and I think it's understandable the body sometimes reacts that way to stress. Maybe just try to find some nice things to do to unwind/de-stress (good excuse to justify nice things like massages etc!).

WOMEN: Stress/Anxiety affecting menstruation

245AM — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 10:11:29 GMT

Oh good idea, I'm definitely overdue for a massage. 🙂 Thanks again for taking time to respond!

Sending you positive energy