If You Want To Get Pregnant
Doctors usually recommend trying to conceive for one year before getting a fertility evaluation. However, this doesnt apply if you have signs or symptoms of a fertility problem. That would include amenorrhea.
If youre not getting your periods, you may be dealing with infertility. Make sure that you andyour partner are evaluated. There may be more than one reason you arent conceiving, and male infertility is more common than you may realize.
Depending on why you arent ovulating, and if there are other fertility problems, treatment possibilities include lifestyle change, weight loss or gain, or medication change. You may also need treatment for an underlying medical condition, or fertility treatments.
Referral To A Consultant
If your GP thinks a medical condition might have caused your periods to stop, they may refer you to a consultant who specialises in the condition.
Depending on what your GP suspects is causing the problem, you may be referred to:
- a gynaecologist a specialist in treating conditions that affect the female reproductive system
- an endocrinologist a specialist in treating hormonal conditions
You may have a full gynaecological examination and various tests, including:
- blood tests to see whether you have abnormal levels of certain hormones
- an ultrasound scan, CT scan or MRI scan to identify any problems with your reproductive system or the pituitary gland in your brain
Referral To A Specialist
If your GP thinks a medical condition might have caused your periods to stop, they may refer you to a specialist.
Depending on what your GP thinks is causing the problem, you may be referred to:
- a gynaecologist â a specialist in treating conditions affecting the female reproductive system
- an endocrinologist â a specialist in treating hormonal conditions
You may have a gynaecological examination and various tests, including:
- blood tests â to see if you have abnormal levels of certain hormones
- an ultrasound scan, CT scan or MRI scan â to identify any problems with your reproductive system or the pituitary gland in your brain
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What Are Signs Of Period Coming Discharge
Vaginal discharge before period is thick white discharge.
During your menstrual cycle, your vaginal discharge may change from time to time. At the beginning of your cycle, after menstruation ends, vaginal discharge is thick white. Some women may experience vaginal dryness just after period ends.
At the middle of your cycle or just before ovulation occurs, vaginal discharge becomes stretchy and egg white. After ovulation occurs and before your period, vaginal discharge is thick white again.
Changes in vaginal discharge are due to hormone changes during menstrual cycles. Thick white discharge is a sign your period is coming. It occurs due to low levels of progesterone and estrogen.
How Does The Pill Affect Your Fertility
But what does switching off your ovaries mean for fertility? While at 24 Im not looking to have children right away, its a concern that does cross my mind.
It wont make you infertile, but you cant be sure how long itll take for your natural cycle to return, says Dr Shazia Malik, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist. She suggests coming off the pill or LARCs and using condoms six months before you start trying for a baby, to allow ovulation to get back to normal.
But not every woman will need that long. With the exception of the injection, which can take up to a year to wear off, your cycle should return to normal almost straight away when you stop taking contraception, says Guillebaud. In fact, it could even make you more fertile. A 2002 study found that ex-pill-takers were more likely to fall pregnant in the six months after coming off the pill than those whove never used it.
She adds that having a pill with a reduced-hormone break can be another option. With the traditional seven-day hormone break, if women miss the first tablets in the first week, it puts them at risk of pregnancy. So it makes sense to reduce or get rid of that break in this case. Combined pills with shorter breaks of four or days may also result in no withdrawal bleed because the lining of the uterus is thin, which can be beneficial.
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What Counts As A Close Contact Who Has To Isolate After Exposure
The national definition of a close contact is someone who has spent four hours or more with a confirmed case in a household or household-like setting, such as a residential care facility.
Close contacts are required to quarantine for seven days and take a rapid antigen test on day six.
The rate of transmission is about 36 per cent higher than Delta, and Delta was 60 per cent higher than Alpha, she told ABC News Breakfast.
What Else Should I Do
- Puberty can cause you to have lots of different feelings and emotions. Talk to people you trust, including your parents who have been through this before. This can help you cope with the changes you are experiencing.
- Stay away from alcohol, drugs and tobacco. All of these can harm your body and are addictive.
- Talk to someone you trust about healthy relationships and attractions.
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So When Is Pregnancy Most Likely
The only time you can get pregnant is during your fertile window.
An egg only lives for about 24 hours after being released from your ovary, and sperm can only live for up to five days inside the body.
That means you can only get pregnant if you have sex:
- in the four to five days leading up to ovulation
- on the day of ovulation
- on the day after ovulation
If youre looking to conceive, the best time to have sex is right before ovulation. This will give sperm time to reach the fallopian tube and meet the egg there.
After that, if no sperm has fertilized the egg, it will dissolve. You wont be able to get pregnant until your cycle restarts.
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Does It Matter If You Skip Periods
Although many girls will skip an occasional period if they have just started their periods, or are stressed or ill, regular periods are a sign that you are healthy and making enough estrogen to keep your bones strong. So if youre skipping periods, its important to find out why and whether you need a treatment plan.
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Why Am I Not Getting My Period At All
The medical term for absent periods is amenorrhea, and is considered to occur when a woman who has previously had normal periods stops menstruating for six months or more. Many of the causes of amenorrhea are the same as those for a skipped period. Your period can be absent for a number of reasons:
Pregnancy
The most common reason to not get your period is because you are pregnant. A home pregnancy test can quickly tell you if that is the reason.
Menopause
Most women stop getting their periods in their late 40s or early 50s. The average age is 51 years old.
Breastfeeding
If you breastfeed frequently, including at night-time, you may not get a period for many months. Be aware that you will ovulate prior to getting your period back, so birth control is important if you are not ready to be pregnant again.
Stress
While a sudden stressful life event can result in a single missed period, ongoing, high level stress and anxiety can cause your period to stop altogether. Managing stress though self-care, counselling, changing your life circumstances, medication, or other strategies can help you return to having normal periods.
Weight loss
Ongoing, dramatic weight loss, from low intake, excessive exercise, gastric bypass surgery, or eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia can stop your period. This happens because the hormones required for ovulation are not produced.
Underweight
Obesity
High levels of prolactin
Ashermans syndrome
Absent uterus
Premature ovarian failure
You Might Work Out Better When You Have Your Period
For a lot of people, the thought of working out while on their period sounds like pure torture. And honestly, who could blame them? When your period starts, you may be experiencing pain and feeling pretty uncomfortable. But as it turns out, not only will working out help your period symptoms, but your period might help you work out better.
First of all, if you have been avoiding working out during your period, you might want to rethink that. OB-GYN Alyse Kelly-Jones, MD, told Shape, “Higher-intensity exercise can release more endorphins, which are the feel-good chemicals released in our brains when we exercise.” So, a workout might help with your period-related mood swings, and endorphins can also help with pain, according to Shape. So basically it’s a win-win.
Additionally, exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist Stacy T. Sims, Ph.D., told Health that your body performs better when on your period. “When your period comes, your hormones are at their lowest. You end up with better intensity, higher fatigue resistance, and better recovery,” Sims explained. Though it might not sound appealing when you have your period, Sims advised that you “go hard on the workouts.”
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Can You Get Pregnant Without Having A Period
Ovulating without a period is unlikely, but possible
Rachel Gurevich is a fertility advocate, author, and recipient of The Hope Award for Achievement, from Resolve: The National Infertility Association. She is a professional member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and has been writing about womens health since 2001. Rachel uses her own experiences with infertility to write compassionate, practical, and supportive articles.
Brian Levine, MD, MS, FACOG, is board-certified in obstetrics-gynecology, as well as reproductive endocrinology and infertility . He is the director and founding partner of CCRM New York and was named a rising star by Super Doctors from 2017 to 2019.
While you can get pregnant without having a period, its not likely. In fact, if youre not getting your periods, this is a good reason to see your gynecologist. There are some normaland some not-so-normalreasons this can occur such as breastfeeding, medications, being underweight, birth control, and more.
The key is to find out why your periods have been absent and what you can do about it. Read on to learn more about amenorrhea including why you may not be having regular menstrual cycles and what can be done about it, especially if you want to get pregnant.
Your Breasts Are Way More Sensitive Around Your Period
When you are about to start your period or you are on it, you may notice that your breasts, specifically your nipples, are more sensitive than usual. You may be super tender and any slight touch might be painful, but its totally normal. Things should go back to how they usually are within a few days.
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Reasons For Missed Periods Or Absence Of Menstruation
Some peoples periods arrive each month like clockwork. For others, periods are unpredictable and may come as a surprise. Sometimes, they dont happen at all! This doesnt necessarily mean youre pregnant.
Missed or late periods may happen for a variety of reasons apart from pregnancy. Common causes of missed or irregular periods range from hormonal imbalances to medical issues. Lets discuss the main reasons for a missed period and when its time to contact a health care provider.
/ Premature Ovarian Failure
If your ovaries call it time before you hit 40 then youll likely be diagnosed with premature ovarian failure .
Your periods will stop because you wont have any more eggs to release and youll likely show other menopause symptoms such as hot flushes, vaginal dryness and mood swings.
The reason? Because your ovaries wont be producing oestrogen as they once were, your whole hormonal cycle will be all out of whack. Its a key condition to get diagnosed.
If left unchecked, premature ovarian failure can cause oestrogen deficiency, which in turn can increase a womans risk of having weak bones as they get older, Irani says. Premature ovarian failure can also raise your risk of heart disease, dementia and depression.
Amenorrhea treatment
The condition can be managed through hormone replacement therapy, as well as other lifestyle changes so if your periods stopped for this reason, all is not lost.
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No One Has To Get Their Period Anymore
Menstruating is painful, expensive, and unnecessary?
At the posthumous retrial of Joan of Arc in 1455, two decades after she was burned at the stake as a witch and a heretic, she was declared an innocent martyr. During the trial, a personal valet offered evidence of Joan of Arcs piety and purity during her 19 years on Earth: She never suffered from the secret illness of women. As far as the people closest to her knew, he claimed, she never got her period.
Saintly qualifications aside, amenorrheathe abnormal absence of periodshas historically been linked with misfortune. In 400 B.C., Hippocrates wrote that when the menses are stopped, diseases from the uterus take place. In 1652, the physician Nicolas Fontanus identified amenorrhea as the most universal and most usual cause for palsy, melancholy, burning fevers, nausea, headaches, and a distaste for meat. Some 18th-century physicians believed that suppressed menses could cause a married woman to spiral into deep hysteria, and even in 1961, the epidemiologist Frances Drew proposed that a young woman might manifest mental anguish by losing her period.
But some doctors today offer amenorrhea to patients as young as age 14 or 15: Menstruation has now become an elective bodily process. Once your periods are established, we can turn them off, Sophia Yen, a pediatrics professor at Stanford Medical School, told me. We now have the technology to make periods optional.
When You Have Your Period You Could Literally Start Tripping
It’s normal to feel somewhat off when you start your menstrual cycle. After all, your body is going through a lot, and with all the pain, pimples, and cravings coming your way, you might not feel like yourself for a few days when you have your period. However, did you know what when you have your period, your body might cause you to be clumsier? As strange as it sounds, it’s true.
Gynecologist Alyssa Dweck, MD, who teaches at the department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, told Health that feeling off while walking is “not an uncommon complaint from my patients.” Yes, your period can make you clumsy. “It might be because of increased fatigue during this time, water retention that’s throwing your center of gravity off, or the hormonal imbalance,” Dweck shared. Additionally, all that water retention during your period might make your contacts fit differently, which doesn’t exactly help your balance either.
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How Do I Know When I Will Get My Next Period
Its impossible to predict when your next period will start. Most girls and women go about 28 days from the first day of one period to the first day of the next, but anywhere from 21-35 days is normal. Especially in the first few years of menstruating, your period may be very irregular. If you track your period on a calendar , you will begin to notice a pattern over time. You can use this menstrual diary to keep track of your periods.
Do I Need To Take Any Vitamins
Your body needs 1300 mg of calcium and 600 units of vitamin D each day. If you drink 4 glasses of milk per day, youll get 1200mg. of calcium + vitamin D. Yogurt has about 400 mg of calcium. Other dietary sources of calcium include calcium fortified: tofu, orange juice, and soy and rice milk. Choose calcium rich foods that you can enjoy throughout the day.
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Your Voice Changes At Different Points In Your Menstrual Cycle
Did you know that during your period, your voice gets deeper? Believe it or not, your voice can drop as much as a few octaves, but you may not even notice. This happens more in women who do not take any form of hormonal contraception.
When your estrogen levels, that keep your voice at a higher octave, drop during your period, then your voice will drop in pitch, which usually occurs after you ovulate.
So could these changes in voice tone indicate how fertile you are? Or attract a mate at a certain time during the month? Interestingly, The National Center for Biotechnology Information reports in a study that vocal changes during the menstrual cycle are actually pretty subtle, and that based on the present findings, it is not possible to make strong inferences about voice as a source of fertility status information. Oh well.
Raised Basal Body Temperature
If youve been using a special basal body thermometer to track your first morning temperature, you might notice that it rises around 1 degree when you conceive and stays elevated throughout your pregnancy.
Though not a foolproof early pregnancy symptom , it could give you advance notice of the big news.
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