Getting Your Period Back with @victoriamyers

inner picture of our outer self. Healthy behaviors play a much bigger role at all health than the actual number on the scales. Internal dialogue could be so powerful and often it's super negative and critical in a way that we wouldn't talk to other people that we care about. When you start to share your story, that gives other people the courage to share theirs. I know you would be proud now of how far you have come in your relationship to food, exercise, and to yourself. I felt freedom,

I've gained relationships. I've found my true sense of self worth. There's one thing I need you to take away. You're going to be okay, okay, Lisa and I are excited to have Victoria Myers back on. If you missed our episode with her, she was on previously talking about intuitive

eating and ibs. We had an amazing conversation, so we're pumped to have her back on to talk about how to get your period back, which I personally have never dealt with, but I know others listening may or it might be something that they have a loved one has gone through, So this could be a perfect episode to share with someone. I know we have a lot of moms that have daughters and this is a real thing.

It's a real concern, and I'll go ahead and say Victoria's Instagram handle here, but we'll have it in the show notes at Victoria Myers Underscore. And Victoria's definitely qualified for what she is talking about. She is a podcast host of her own nutrition Minds. You can check that out. She is a registered dietitian, and she is the founder of Nourishing Minds Nutrition. So Victoria, welcome back. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be back again.

Before we jump in and go through all about how this happens, why it happens, what the cause is something that I've noticed with my friends I'm thirty two years old, so I have a lot of friends a few years younger than me, a few years older than me, and some who have lost their period because of dieting, and there was no concern while they were dieting and staying

in control of their weight and bodies. But when it came time to think about having a baby, all of a sudden, they were terrified and we're scrambling to get their periods back and to learn about their bodies. So I just thought it was super interesting to kind of think if I was twenty and I lost my period because of disordered eating habits, I might sweep that under

the rug. But when you're a few years older or in your family planning years, all of a sudden, it kind of bites you in the butt and you wish you didn't do the things that you did. So, just for anybody who's maybe not there yet, I want you to be thinking about what that means for your body. And while it might not be critical to fix it in the moment, you don't want to get to the

point where you two are scrambling. Yeah, because your period is your monthly report card, and you definitely want to think of it that way, like it's telling you that your body is safe and seen and heard and taken care of. Truly, I will say that there are ramifications for not having a period, even if you aren't trying to have a baby. There's uh, you know, impasted your bow density, it can affect your heart health. Estrogen is

very protective to our hearts. And I know like people often see periods as like this annoying, a monthly thing they have to deal with. But hopefully we can also change that conversation to be an empowering message of like, this is your body taking care of you, and also appear it can be a wonderful, restorative time. I know that sounds a little hippie of me, but it's true it can be. So hopefully that helps shift someone's perspective

about their period too. Hey, can y'all quickly since I know Victoria, you and Lisa both know the official term for what we're talking about, but I want y'all to say it out loud for everybody else because I, for the life of me, cannot say it. I feel like I'm going to invest saying it now that we're like laughing about saying it round, so we're gonna talk today about h A. So hypothalamic and nerrea. Boom. Now you can like use that whenever you're talking about it and

sound super smart. Let's call it h A for the purpose of today. I feel like, you know, so anytime we say h A, we're talking about what victoria hypothalic nerrea or a missing period. Okay, but it's missing period due to h A. So hypotholgic and norrea is means that you have once had a period and now it's missing because there's technically a version called priory and norria, which means you've never had your period before. But hypothogic and norria means that you had a period and now

it's an it's missing in action. So h A is you know a really interesting thing that there's this, you know, I think we understand a lot of times with like eating disorders, that there are gonna often be like a missing pure There's also the female athlete triad where we often like this kind of a known thing that a

lot of times athletes can lose their periods. But there's this huge group of women that also superior is just from disordered or de dieting behaviors alone can also And the way you basically want to think of h A is your body has stopped getting the fuel or the necessary inputs it needs to create a cycle. There's a lot of different mechanisms within the body, and I wouldn't want to necessarily get super scientific in today's so because

that can get really boring really quickly. But basically think of it like this, if your body is in a famine mode of feast for famine, it thinks that it's unsafe to produce a cycle right now. And there's a lot of things that happen with your hypothelic put to a terry internal access or your hp a access where your body starts to shut down the pathway. So again you can just think of as like your body isn't getting what it needs, so it starts to shut down

these pathways. There's these like amazing reproductive neurals that tell your body that it's just time to stimulate and mature an egg, which leads to ovulation, which leads to your period. Other things that can happen in addition to like your your neurons not firing correctly anymore and your body going into that Sandon mode is your hormones should just start to decrease as Mentioning estrogen earlier is a really important reason why you also want your period because it's very

protective to your bones into your heart help. But estrogen is involved with your unine binding, is also involved with the first half of your period, your filick, your phase, and it helps tell your body it's time to ovulate, which then tells your body to search your progesterone. And often when we have h A, you have really really low levels of estrogen and progestion. I've seen women with

postman and pousial ranges of estrogen and progesterone. And that's another thing that happens is so not only are these like HV access stops faunctioning correctly. It tells your neurons and different components and chemicals in your body to stop firing the things that needs to stem like the egg, but also you just stop producing enough literal hormones to have a cycle. And the main things that cause it, we call them the big four practices food, exercise, sleep,

and stress. I will say above all the food is the primary culprit of why period you can go missing. So that means that you're not eating enough. That's like the primary thing that you can think of is when I say food intake, I mean you are not eating enough. And it's really interesting. You can actually lose your period from not eating enough with or without a low body fat because that's a really big common misconception. People often think you have to have a really really low body

fat and that's simply not true. You can just lose it from calorie restriction alone. I'll also say calories are probably most important when it comes to food intake, and second after that is carbohydrates because we have glucose sensing neurons in our ovaries and another reason why we can really quickly lose loser period if we're not eating the carbohydrates.

So as an example, I've seen people maybe collorqually eat enough from something like a keto diet, but then they still lose their period because they're not eating any carbohydrates, and they're really really important for your period. So that's the food piece. With exercises, typically just someone is over exercising exers I seem too much and that can cause a lot of stress to the body and also cause in an adequate food intake to exercise ratio, and that's

also part of why they lose their periods. And then not quite as important but definitely important is stress levels. Do someone's had like a big change of alife, they've moved, they've gone across thease, they've had maybe a new job. Stress levels can definitely cause a missing period. I would say that's a little bit more common with just like missing your period here and there, though u h A is probably gonna be a little bit more specifically related

to food into exercise. And then I will say sleep is really important too. Sometimes we see people have a regular cycles if they're not getting adequate quality of sleep too. So the big four is what I've had to your body and again all these different pathways. Basically saying your body starts to shut down and not produce a cycle because it thinks it's in a famine or it's not

in a safety mode is the way I always describe it. So, how many months of a missing period does it take to diagnose or warrant and call it h A. I believe it's three or more months. Yeah, okay, so I assume at that point will need to seek medical attention and get some help there. But what are some ways or some steps people can take to help restore what's been done. Yeah, so I agree. I think sing a medical doctor is always something I'm going to advise as you go see your O, B G. Y in and

talk to them about this. Occasionally PCUS can be part of the conversation or not occasionally, but I will say PCs can cause a missing period. We're talking specifically to ahe A today though. I just mentioned that because sometimes when people go to a doctor, they immediately get splashed with the diagnosis of PCOS, and a missing period is not only caused from PCs. Just wanted to mention that. But the main thing, can you can you define PCOS? Yeah,

so polycystic over eat syndrome. It's when we have I mean, there's a lot of different criteria. You have elevated androgens, you also have a missing or a regular period, and you have polycystic ovaries. Usually we're looking at twenty five or more follicles on each ovary. Is what you need to get diagnosed with it, and that can cause a missing or a regular period. I know that's again it's not the purpose of this converse ation, but h A is a little bit different of what causes in the

same period in comparison. So you did say that body fat does not necessarily have a correlation to h A. However, what about weight changes, So do you need to go through weight loss for hypothalmic a manorrhea to occur? Yeah, definitely, Like weight loss can definitely contribute to h A. And that makes sense to just from the energy and take perspective, right, Like usually weight loss is happening because there's a calorie

restriction of some kind happening. But weight loss or like especially like sudden weight loss can definitely also indicate to your body that is again not in a safety time and not a healthy time to produce the cycle. So

that's a good question. I mentioned this in the very beginning, but I mentioned it doesn't have to be a low body weight because there is this perception that you have to be in a thin or small sized body to have h A, and that's not always true, and you can be in a variety of body sizes and experience.

Just to drive that point home and correct me if I'm wrong, you can have a b M. I your doctor says your your body mass index is overweight or even obese, and you can still have hypothalmic amenorrhea likely if you are restricting calories exactly. Yes, okay, and then can we continue on with the possibly seeing O B G y N or a medical professional, but being careful of them immediately diagnosing you with something else because they

may not. I'm I'm wondering if my O B G I N has ever really asked me about my food intake or caloric intake. I mean, they definitely just want to weigh me and make sure that I check whatever box that is. But I'm just wondering if someone goes and yes, you're right, they go to that appointment, will they get the proper guidance? But let's say that they know it's h A, are there other steps you could

share that they could take to help restore their period? Yeah, And that was a really good point to make any because sometimes, yeah, it's not so cut and dry off, like someone's going to sit and ask you what is your relationship with food like and what are you doing with your exercise habits? And let's be real, a lot

of times these habits are praised. Orthorexy is definitely something in any disordered eating where like women eating less and exercising too much is often a praise think in our in our society specifically, so really good point to make. I mean, this does sound so simple, why I understand it's not at all. It's why like we've worked one and one with people on this, but you need to eat more and exercise less. That's the basics behind fixing

h A. But eating more. I don't know if we talk about calorie ranges here, I can share some of that, but it's usually eating an appropriate amount of calories to restore h A. And then with exercising, typically what we're looking at. Not everyone can take an exercise break all that. That's my gold standard. I usually prefer a small time frame of an actual exercise break, but sometimes that's not possible for all people all the time. Exercise addiction is

a real thing. So then we just focus on reducing overall exercise or let's say taking out high intensity interval training and just focusing on walks or yoga or something

like that to get their period back. I think it's so interesting about as it sounds really easy, but the reality is is like those are really hard things to work through, and I think that's where like working one one can be so helpless because I swear more of my job at least, I wonder if you feel to say, like, I feel like my job is more talking about the mental assets of life so challenging than it is like just giving someone like a cali arrange and telling them

not to exercise, Like it's never that simple. It's always like talking through why we're so stress or worried or anxious about things, or why we have the fear of waking. Like that's I feel like such a huge part of

my job. Yeah, and when it comes to a period, it can further the stress and anxiety when that report card comes and you're doing all the things that your dietitian tells you, you're eating more, you're exercising less, and then your period still isn't coming back, and that can kind of put you into a cycle of feeling like a failure, having more stress, furthering the loss of period by way of that stress part of the equation, especially if you are in family planning mode and that is

on a timer. Yeah, I think that's a good point. And my thing with the fertility too, is like if you're doing this work in addition with fertility treatment, like I'm going to support you with whatever decision you make, because some people have the time to wait for h because it can take six plus months to heal from right, and then some people don't have that time at always really want to honor and respect that, but I still

always encourage doing this work. In addition, if you are doing something like fertility treatment, because it is so important to heal just because again it's your body knowing that it's safe and taking care of my personal experience, I lost my period when I went off of birth control. Same here is that h I don't think of it as h I think if it more like post birth control signings, That's the way I would personally describe it.

But I do think if it's an extended period of time, it is probably more likely that it is h A and you may have always had h A, but the birth control pill disguised that, which is like, oh my gosh, I could made another episode in itself, right, like how the birth control pill like just gives us withdrawal blieds. It's not the same thing as a natural monthly cycle, and it can be really confusing because it makes you think that you know you're good and you're having a period,

but it's not the same thing. So so if you're having a regular period on birth control, it's not that it's a false good report card in theory, not necessarily, but you can't say this is my report card, I'm doing everything great because it's synthetically happening. Would ud be the right word. Yeah, So you're on typically some amounts

is different for every birth control people. You're on a synthetic amount of ashagen and progester and it's not the same as the like the beautiful epps and flows of your natural monthly period, and that causes whenever we saw taking it, when we start taking the sugar pills, a

withdrawal bleed, and that's not the same thing. Now I'm going to say, like just to be real clear, like I have no qualms with birth control, Thank goodness we have it, that say, you know, but so important for so many years of my life because I didn't have an unwanted pregnancy. So I'm not hating on it at all, but it's important to understand, like it's not the same thing, So it's not hating on it as also like understanding its purpose and that's not giving you the same thing

as a pill. I will also say, just real quick, sometimes with eating disorder recovery, uh, this is different than what we've been talking about disorder eating with Sometimes you actually want someone to take something like synthetic estrogen or birth control as they are to underweight so much so where it's going to take a long time to get their period back, and that can be protected to their bones into their heart health until we know they're safe

to get their period back. So there's always caveats, of course, but most of the time we want to work to get back that natural monthly period. Such an important distinction. Yes. Yeah, in the beginning you said something about how we really want to change the conversation around periods, and I think this will open the conversation up to all listeners, even

if you're not going through loss of period. And for me, this has been such a wonderful way to take my health back because when I lost my period because of birth control all of a sudden, I didn't have that report card coming in and it came back within about six months, and I did some things that I'm not going to mention here because it might not be applicable to everybody. And I don't want to confuse everybody, but when I started getting it back, it really changed my

mind about periods and my own health. And even with my now husband boyfriend then, you know, we were high fiving each other when I was getting my period, which is a complete opposite framework of you know how I was in my early twenties of my period. You know,

a boyfriend you know wasn't celebrating it either. So you know, it's just so amazing to think about how wonderful the body is and really double think or check in with ourselves when we're quick to complain about something that it's doing just because we're conditioned to complain about what it's doing.

So I personally love my period. I'm also not one of those people that gets crazy cramps, so I know that that it could be very uncomfortable experience for a lot of people, But for me, I feel so womanly and good and in charge of my health when I get that as a read on my body. Okay, I love that so much and I'm going to echo that completely. I love my period. I'm actually on my period right now, and I'm like, hell, yeah, girl, I'll get your your body is doing good, like I genuinely like get excited

when it happens. I also, I don't know how much you guys talk about the period, so maybe people aren't familiar with this. There's this whole idea of like cyclic living, and we talk about that with our clients because intuitive eating is really about going with the seasons of life and going with the epp and flow of life. And I love this idea of being very introspective and like really not having a lot on my calendar when I'm on a period, and that changes as I go towards opulations.

So I just have always looked at it as this really fun way to connect deeper, more profoundly with my body. And yeah, of course sometimes I'm more moody on certain parts of my cycle and I get annoyed, but overall it's just allowed for a greater appreciation for like being a woman, because our period is actually like our like powerhouse. It's not like the negative thing that we have to deal with every month, something you also said earlier, and

I love that. By the way, I think I might start implementing a little to that into my life of when I am in my period, what is my schedule look like? And how can I give myself that permission to just step away from certain activities or things. But I also want to say to you said something earlier about with your clients and when they have h a and really getting to the root of why they got there.

I'm paraphrasing kind of what you said to get to what I want to ask you is like, Okay, let's get to the root of why you feel like you need to look that way anyways. So for some of us, yes, like Lisa, there was a time in her twenties where she could sweep no period under the rug because the root of the problem was society has told us we need to look like this. So as women, one of the many sacrifices that ends up on the table is

the loss of our period. So just for anybody that maybe hasn't lost their period, but they're listening to this, and hopefully they can walk away with an appreciation of just how complex our bodies are and how everything is working together at this crazy level that we can't I can barely even comprehend every organ and depends on this and that in the breakdown of whatever, and when we're destroying our bodies for this gain or what by society standards a short term gain, but like the long term

effects are not worth it. They're not worth it at all. And I think it's just comes back to understanding that, like not eating enough calories or not eating enough overall, is it worth it to lose your health over And we're being told this guy's of it's for your health. You're taking these boots out of your diet, or you're not eating a particular way, or maybe you're just overall like not you know, you're doing a caloristriction diet. But my question back to people's like, is that really about

your health? Is that truly value based and aligning for you to do, because this doesn't seem to be giving you your health if you're developing digestive issues or more of those, or you're losing your period, like you might be doing it because you think certain foods are in play metorier they shouldn't eat X, Y and Z foods, or you should be on a caloristriction diet because that's just what we think health is right now. But is

that really health? Like? Is that really And again, having your peer to me is like one of the main vital signs that stuff from Lisa Henderson. Jo actually calls it the fifth botal sign, and I couldn't agree more. I think that's such a great way to think of it as like one of your signs of health. And you know, thank goodness for somebodies that show up and

not everybody gets that warning sign. Maybe if you've got gastro intentional issues that show up because of your eating disorder, or you have h A show up because of your eating patterns, thank your body. Maybe in the moment, it's frustrating because you're so desperate too. I'm just categorizing, but let's say it's because you want to be thin. You're so desperate to weigh a certain amount or something. But thank goodness, your body is functioning at a level that

it can give you the warning. Because other people, their body may not give them the h A warning, but there's still serious problems going on, like it may show up just down the line. I'm just kind of thinking of trying to have gratitude. It's unfortunate if you have h A, but how amazing that your body sent you

a signal that you need help. Yeah. I really like that perspective, and similar to a digestive issues right, like when I was experiencing really bad digestive issues, that was a sign that something was off with my body, and saying when I lost my peered after getting off the bark until pill and I would even say to this day, I haven't had a missing period since I got my

peered back all those years ago. But I will get digestive issues out how flare ups whenever I'm in a lot of stress in my life, and it's always a reflective time for me be like, Okay, you're obviously stressed out about something, because IBS obviously isn't just cost and just sort of eating it can we cost from you know, stress and anxiety we know so linked to that too. So I just always use my symptences like Okay, obviously something's going on, like check in time victoria, like how

is your life going? Is there something where you are too stressed out about something? And you can always like if you are still strongly disordered eating, I aviously check in with your food, your exercise habits as always, if you're experiencing more sentence or if your peer goes think those are the first things you always want to ask yourself, but it is it's a great way to reflect and

ask yourself where you were at your journey. I lost my period for a month during COVID, and I thought I had to be pregnant because I haven't had a missing period in a long time. And I mean I must have spent four hundred dollars on pregnancy tests. And I went to the doctor and without I I wrote a blog about this, but without even uh knowing anything about my baseline weight or anything. She told me that I should just lose weight, just blanket statement. Told me that, yeah,

I think I had gained like to myself. I think I don't weigh myself, but I think I went on a scale there. I forget the story exactly I wrote it in the blog, but yeah, that I mean Amy's jobs, both of your jaws dropped, and that so did my you know, Instagram audiences. Um when I told that story. But and and go ahead and read the blog. It's on my side or a link it I guess below. But I will say I actually didn't plan on telling the story. I forgot about it until we were kind

of talking about it. But it's so important to not go with and get statements from your healthcare providers and really know your own body because it was just stress and it made you know, that was the first time in my life a healthcare provider had said that to me, and I actually appreciated being in the shoes of many of the people that I work with because it just totally invalidates everything else and it makes you feel to blame and you know it first of all, was unrelated

to that, and second of all, just was such an unhelpful suggestion. And you know, I think why my jaw dropped. I'm sure why so many people listening is because you know, Lisa, you know you benefit from thin privilege unless something I love that you talked so much about. So it's so concerning to me because if someone says that to you, imagine who else they're saying it to you and into why didn't they stop and ask you? How is your stress? What's going on in your life? Is there any like

have you had any major transitions or challenges? Have you had any changes you're eating an exercise habits. I understand like there's so much medical complications that like they're not

given enough time or education kind of stuff. That's just super a super saddening to hear that honestly, because like that was such an opportunity to ask questions rather than how you to lose weight, especially how to lose weight, And it came from like a much more gentle place than where it kind of sounds like it's coming from. You know. It was like, sometimes our bodies are very

sensitive to small weight changes. Therefore a few pounds could get you back to you know, your period, So it was more gentle than you know, no, just go home and lose weight. There was a little bit more basis, but nonetheless, you know, I just think it's so important for everybody to bring their own power to every appointment, whether that's with a registered dietitian or a doctor and recognize that blanket advice like that is just so unhelpful.

And the real reason I brought this up was because stress has a profound impact on our bodies period and we do not talk about that enough. We go so quick to the weight and you know, by focusing on my stress management techniques, my next period returned. So there we were. Yes, I appreciate sharing it because agains stressed. I couldn't agree more. I just such a big advocate, like what's your shows? I was like what's your anxiety levels like, because that makes such a difference in our

health in so many ways. We just don't give enough credit. And it's so funny because I think we've wrapped up the first episode talking about that, but it's just true. It really is so important that we understand and we make peace with that. And I understand stress and anxiety is harder to deal with, and you know, eliminating a food or doing a protocol or trying to do when it comes to hormones, so often people are elimiting foods.

That's why I mentioned that they think I have a missing period, that must mean I'm eating something inflammatory, but oftentimes, especially with h A, not oftentimes, almost always with a specifically, that is not at all why you have a missing period. It's not because you're eating specific foods. Is because you're

not eating enough and you're probably exercising too much. Well, that was incredibly helpful, and as a reminder, we'll put all of Victoria and her nutrition practices information in the show notes below. Victoria, thank you for being such a wealth of knowledge and sharing your beautiful energy with us. Thank you, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. M HM