Is it Possible to Miss a Period for a Month?
A period happens on average every 28 days for females when an unfertilized egg passes through the body and the uterine lining sheds as blood. The period is the end of the menstrual cycle, and a new egg will be released soon after the bleeding stops. Notice that the cycle is an average of 28 days. For some women this could be more or less, and in some cases you could have both. Your period should fluctuate on its punctuation during puberty and menopause, but in between these time periods it should be predictable, and occur once a month. Deviations from this rule of thumb can be an indicator of a health concern.
Your period existence is a result of hormones, so when these become over or under active, you can develop health problems. Amenorrhea is defined as the absence of a period for at least three consecutive months. Though, the absence of a period is not the only menstrual cycle related problem you can have. You should always keep track of your cycle and watch to make sure you are getting it once every 21 to 35 days. A period outside of this window of time is considered abnormal and should be identified.
Source: NIH
Reasons for a missed period:
1) Stress
Is it possible to miss a period for a month? Yes, due to stress. This stress can be characterized, by but not limited to, over exercising, under eating, financial insecurity, or relationship problems. All of these factors can mentally or physically put your body under stress. The stress we experience is due to cortisol imbalances. Cortisol, is a hormone and this what communicates with all the hormones, specifically, estrogen and progesterone are affected by cortisol. Stress also causes a delay in ovulation because research has found that cortisol can disrupt the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge. This surge typically occurs right before ovulation, which provides reasoning for how stress affects your period.
Additionally, our sympathetic nervous system, which increases our stress response, can delay ovulation as a protective mechanism. Ovulation takes energy to release the egg, prepare for pregnancy, and if fertilization doesn’t occur, menstruation. If the body is under stress, cortisol is released and the sympathetic nervous system is activated because your body is perceiving a threat and wants to conserve energy for defense instead of preparing for reproduction.
2) Hypothalamic Amenorrhea
Is it possible to miss a period for a month? Yes, due to hypothalamic amenorrhea. When you are stressed, the hypothalamus can be greatly impacted. The hypothalamus is an area in the brain that controls many of our involuntary actions such as breathing, heart beat, and our period. Attached to it is the pituitary gland, which is responsible for producing many of the hormones. These hormones are very powerful that when they are not balanced, can cause you to lose your period completely. One important hormone specifically that is effected it GnRH, which when released will cause FSH and LH, other reproductive hormones, to be excreted and promote ovulation. Amenorrhea is when you do not have a period for 3 consecutive cycles. So as a result, hypothalamic amenorrhea is when you do not have a period for 3 consecutive months due to the low production of the pituitary gland in the brain caused by hypothalamic stress. Things like undereating, overexercising, low body fat percentage and low carbohydrate intake are all factors that can threaten the hypothalamus and shut off hormone production in the pituitary.
Source: NIH
3) Low body weight
Is it possible to miss a period for a month? Yes, due to low body weight. Women who have undergone a dramatic weight loss in a short amount of time, or who do not eat enough on the daily, can be at risk for delayed or even eliminated menstrual cycle. The hormones in our body rely on a set body fat percentage for our height. This percentage can be very different person to person based on genetics, but if you go below this percentage you can delay or even lose your period. On average, women need about 17% body fat percentage in order to maintain a healthy period. Estrogen is an important hormone to maintain body fat, and it is released from the ovaries, adrenal glands, and fat tissue. When body fat is low there is not much mass that can produce hormones and as a result, low estrogen can occur resulting in a missing period. In general too when you drop bodyweight, this can cause stress on the body because it thinks that a famine is occurring. As a result, cortisol can spike which will create an imbalance in estrogen and progesterone.
4) Obesity
Is it possible to miss a period for a month? Yes, due to obesity. Obesity is a term that regards individuals who have a BMI higher than 30, but this measure does not mean every obese individual is at risk for missing a period because BMI does not consider muscle mass, water retention etc. In this case, I am referring to individuals who carry a higher percentage of body fat when regarding obesity. Similar to low body weight, our hormones will spin out of control if body fat and weight is too high. For an obese women, this can cause your periods to be either extremely heavy or very lengthy which will therefore elongate the menstrual cycle’s window.
Source: 28685512
5) Post birth control
Is it possible to miss a period for a month? Yes, due to stopping birth control. When you are on birth control, for example the oral pill, you are putting your body on a set pattern of hormones every day. Each day has a different amount and concentration of hormones inside them which mimics the ‘ideal 28 day cycle’. The pill works by perfectly timing the cycle of your period. As you can imagine, your body can get used to an external source providing it with the perfect balance of hormones, so when you go off the pill your will immediately begin ovulating and will have varied hormone levels. This will cause your period to be scattered for the next few months.
Source: European Journal, 20725580
6) PCOS
Is it possible to miss a period for a month? Yes, due to PCOS. One of the three diagnostic criteria for this condition is irregular periods due to anovulation. PCOS occurs when your body produces an increased amount of the male hormone androgen which causes a formation of cysts on the ovaries which impacts the release of an egg and therefore can decrease fertility. PCOS is also associated with insulin resistance which can cause weight gain. As you now have noticed, many of these explanations for missed or delayed period are connected.
Source: 27667654
