Where art thou, period?
Brief summary that isn't so brief: started 'diet' in January 2010, at 5'4" 135ish lbs. Had my period, everything was fine and dandy. This 'diet' quickly turned into anorexia and by the next month, even though I had not lost that much weight, I had no more period. I have not had a period since January 2010.
My weight spiraled downwards to 92 lbs by late March 2010. It was then that I was hospitalized for the first time. For the next year and a half, my weight would go up and down - I 'stabilized' at around 105-108 lbs for a few months (September 2010 to January 2011) but no period.
Eventually my weight went down to 85 lbs. With the help of the hospital I gained back up to 92ish, where I maintained my weight over the summer of 2011. In September 2011, I started bingeing like a madwoman. The bingeing went on for three months straight, until December 31st, 2011 where I hit rock bottom and finally got back on track.
I never weighed myself throughout all this bingeing, but I am positive that I must've gained up to at least 120-125 lbs... still, no period. I have been on my new 'diet' since December 31st - I've binged twice, but the weight seems to be dropping off like a stone as I weighed in today at 112 lbs (a lot lower than I expected.)
Okay, now time for the actual question - will my period ever come back?! Back before my ED, I didn't exactly eat healthy - I ate a lot of junk food and never exercised. I find it hard to believe that 130-135 is my body's 'set weight' because I simply did not look, feel or act healthy with my eating habits back then. I expected my period to come back with all the bingeing - my weight did shoot up - but it is nowhere to be seen. Now I'm back down to 112 and the last time I was around this weight I didn't have my period, so I'm kind of confused.
If my period left within one month of starting my original 'diet', and I didn't gain it back by bingeing my way up to upwards of 120 lbs, will my period ever come back?! Is the only way to get my period back to get back up to 130 lbs again? I looked horrendous at the time and was so unhealthy, I find it nearly impossible to believe that my lowest possible set point could be so... high.
Help?
Hahahahaha the title made me laugh. Sorry for no response though :|
How many calories are you eating? Are you getting plenty of fat? In the past I gained up to a semi-healthy weight a few times, but my period didn't come back until I was consistently eating 2500+ calories.
Hey fallingcrashing! It's been a long time, eh? Well, you know as well as I do that you shouldn't be doing any dieting of any sort. A weight of 112lbs is just not enough for you, it's very low, and it would be expected to not have your period yet! To be honest and most helpful, aiming for a weight of 135lbs again will be your best bet to bring back your period. If along the way, say at 125 or 130lbs your end up getting your period, then your body if healthy there. But if you started the whole ED at 135lbs and you were getting a regular period at the time, isn't it just best to go back to there? You will look and feel beautiful at that weight!!! :)
Another question for you to answer (even though you were looking for answers!): How long have you been above the minimum BMI? I started my recovery being treated by an ED specialist who mentioned (when I told him my own menstruation concerns) that periods may not come back for up to half a year after "full weight restoration"... I.e., restoration to a weight well above the minimum. Also, you can be at a healthy BMI but not have a healthy body fat percentage. Your body requires a certain amount of fat to even start menstruating (the hypothalamus releases a hormone called GnRH, or gonadotrophin-releasing hormone, (when it recognises that there is enough body fat) that actually causes the initiation (and return) of menstrual cycles), so perhaps your body fat percentage is below where it needs to be.
"Are you getting plenty of fat in your diet? You can be at a healthy BMI but not have a healthy body fat percentage. "
I think this is a silly thing to say because fat does not make you fat, sorry. It is very contradictive to say "A calorie is a calorie" but then to relate dietary fat intake with body fat. It makes absolutely no sense! So when you eat 3000 calories but it hardly has any fat in it, you only gain muscle? It also scares people into eating fat because then they will automatically assume it will give them more body fat than carbs or proteins.
Dietary fat is important for other things like hair growth, skin, brain function and hormonal balance.
Anyways, your weight is obviously too low. I think you know you should keep gaining but are afraid. How tall are you? 112 lbs is too low and you lost 8 pounds during recovery?? You do not have to binge in order to gain weight. But if you do it is normal. I think most recoveries do.
Hi there,
Hopefully I can explain some things and what to expect during recovery and the whole "period" question. It is a lot more complex than you realize and I will go into the phases and what to expect.
There are a lot of things that come into play and having your period return while in recovery and not just a one-to-one ratio.
As you probably know having your period is extremely important while in recovery; but it does not mean the patient is fully recovered nor does it mean they should stop gaining weight.--having a period is a marker [among many] which indicats the patient is getting healthier.
In other words, try to look at the entire picture of recovery; not just having your period return [although it is a good sign]. Recovery is like a painting...you have to learn to look at the whole canvas of the painting and everything it takes to complete it.
In some rare cases, those who are underweight and/or in recovery from an ED had their periods return--this is most likely due to hormonal imbalance and stress. Not allowing for a full recovery will cause permanent damage to your body and the repair will remain incomplete and set you up for relapse.
Gaining to a very healthy BMI is an important factor to recover and I will explain why. Leptin is one key element and adipose tissue (fat) is Leptin. It takes hundreds and thousands of calories for the repair to occur and be at your optimum.
So, on a scientific level let me give you an example of why gaining to a proper weight is vital for recovering ED patients even if you think you are at a healthy weight! With that said, you want to have your period return at your current weight; not possible.
Let's just go through the process of an ED [and EDNOS] to show how it differs from calorie restriction for non-ED people just to give you a proper reference point for why you are being told "eat more", and then we'll get to some of the specifics of how your ED is shifting in expression right now with daytime restriction:
When you dieted for the first time some things that occurred in your body also occur in everyone. Your leptin levels drop quickly. With less leptin in the body, the metabolism is slowed and appetite is increased. When people diet severely, the metabolism is dropped as far as possible to try to maximize what little energy is being provided. While we can survive famine, it is at quite a cost to the body to do so.
Now this is where changes happened to you that don't happen to non-ED people. You had specific genetic mutations that were activated by that starvation. They primarily shift neurotransmitters in your brain to malfunction. We can see this on fMRIs with ED patients. This malfunction creates all the compulsions and anxieties around weight gain and food intake.
If I take two women of the exact same age/height/weight and I starve them (one has the genes for ED, the other does not) and then I stop starving them and I return them both to a BMI of 20 (exact same weight as pre-starvation), there are serious physical problems for the ED person that persist.
And ED person's leptin levels do not return to normal, whereas they do for the non-ED person. This is the critical reason why the low healthy range of BMI (18.5-20) rarelyprevents relapse for an ED patient. The non-ED person will return to an optimal leptin level (that she had before starvation) of about 16. The ED person will have leptin levels of maybe 6-9, despite being BMI 20.
So while leptin is directly related to fat stores, the leptin system is now damaged in an ED person. She has to gain to the higher healthy BMI range to push the leptin back to normal levels. So she may need to be BMI 24-25 to have leptin levels of 16.
As I mentioned before, your body will naturally find its happy weight and eventually you will stop gaining
Why are those leptin levels so critical? Because if they don't hit about 16, then your period is unlikely to return (it can, but odds are against it). Leptin acts as a gating hormone for all the reproductive hormones functioning correctly.
More importantly, optimal leptin levels seem to quiet all those malfunctioning neurotransmitters in the brain that generate the ED thoughts in the first place!That means the chance of relapse is greatly reduced the higher up on that healthy BMI range you are (clinical trials prove that).
First, has the definition of “weight recovered” been determined by experts who have helped you through your recovery process? If so, then it is highly likely that while you may have reached the healthy BMI range (18.5-25) you are still not at your body’s optimal weight.
However, BMI 20 will be a fully-recovered weight for only 2% of all patients striving to recover from the restriction eating disorder spectrum. That leaves 98% of those who have been told to stop gaining weight fighting the body’s absolute necessity that they gain more in order to reach their own optimal weight set point. Thus why it is critical to reach a higher weight to fully recover, prevent relapse and reverse all the damage done by the ED on a cellular and mental level!
70% of all women naturally rest between BMI 21-27 and half of those will be BMI 23, 24 or 25 respectively.
Your body will not be the same after you put it through an ED and therefore cannot compare your body to its pre-ED days. If you are meant to be BMI 24 and you are trying to stay at BMI 20, then the continuing damage from that ongoing restriction is equivalent to being naturally BMI 20 and trying to maintain a weight at BMI 16.
To give you an example: I went from being less than a BMI of 12 to then a BMI of 26 and naturally lost some of the post-ANA weight and now a BMI of 23. During the weight gaining I gained to a very high BMI--but as I built trust with my body and eating patterns and reached a full recovery I lost some of the post-Anorexia weight naturally and even to this day I consume the same amount of calories.
Everyones body will be different as you heal overall [not just menstruating again] and some need more. For me personally [after putting my body through Anorexia Nervosa, Exercise addiction, and Bulimia] I had to gain to a very healthy weight to have my period return and be regular and to be healthy overall and fully recover. Again, some[most] need a little more TLC to not relapse.
Remember, if you want to fully recover, and heal, you have to go all they way and be willing to do whatever it takes to do this for good and reverse all the damage done.
It was the best decision I made and so lucky to have my period after so many years of not having it but it took some huge challenges that I faced and I am so thankful for being fully recovered from Anorexia and Anorexia Athletica and Bulimia.
YOU also have to make an effort to be committed to change and recover as well.
I can assure you it is all reversible and you will be fine but it needs a lot more attention and time for awhile to ensure it goes in the right direction.
Best of luck and message me anytime. Remember to keep pushing yourself.
Here is a link to my post regarding periods and recovery: http://caloriecount.about.com/periods-ft20729 5#13
and this: http://caloriecount.about.com/body-know-ft207 004#7
Original Post by lvgrl90:
"Are you getting plenty of fat in your diet? You can be at a healthy BMI but not have a healthy body fat percentage. "
I think this is a silly thing to say because fat does not make you fat, sorry. It is very contradictive to say "A calorie is a calorie" but then to relate dietary fat intake with body fat. It makes absolutely no sense! So when you eat 3000 calories but it hardly has any fat in it, you only gain muscle? It also scares people into eating fat because then they will automatically assume it will give them more body fat than carbs or proteins.
Dietary fat is important for other things like hair growth, skin, brain function and hormonal balance.
Anyways, your weight is obviously too low. I think you know you should keep gaining but are afraid. How tall are you? 112 lbs is too low and you lost 8 pounds during recovery?? You do not have to binge in order to gain weight. But if you do it is normal. I think most recoveries do.
Apologies for the juxtaposition of the sentence - as I was not implying that eating healthy fats makes one store more fat. [I will go change it!] Simply, they are both important in maintaining a healthy hormonal balance, and dietary fats are obviously important in aiding vitamin utilisation in the body and enzyme regulation. Also, typically a higher fat intake is correlated with a higher kcalorie intake, since there are more kcalories per gram of fat than there are per gram of carbohydrate or protein.
Original Post by dancerqueen1:
Gaining to a very healthy BMI is an important factor to recover and I will explain why. Leptin is one key element and adipose tissue (fat) is Leptin.
Slightly incorrect. Adipose (fat) tissue secrets leptin, however, so very low body weight levels are associated with not having high enough levels of leptin. Your hypothalamus has leptin receptors on its surface, and low levels of leptin signal that the body is in starvation mode and cessation of menstruation usually follows. (Then again, that whole system is not entirely understood so I'm not 100% sure of anything I say.)
Also, if you're still going through stressful times (that are stressful either physically or psychologically), high cortisol levels may be responsible for a delay in the return of your period....
soxgurl - While bingeing I was eating upwards of 5000 calories a day, every day... plenty of fats. Now I'm kind of slipping, I'm down to 1200 a day and trying to up it but yeah, that's where I'm at now.
muchlinski - Nice to hear from you again :) My BMI is at 19.1, how can that be too low? So frustrating.
coeurage - Hmm, well I guess I've only been above the minimum BMI for about 2.5ish months now, since mid-November I guess. I have heard the same thing about needing to maintain a healthy weight for 6ish months before periods return, but I was maintaining a (low, but healthy) weight for about 5ish months last year and no hint of a period.
lvgrl - I am 5'4", my BMI is currently 19.1, so I am at a healthy weight. I really do not want to gain any weight - any higher than this and I am just way too uncomfortable with my body.
dancerqueen - Thanks for the reply, I'm in school now so I'll read what you wrote later.
Thank you to everyone who replied :)
I know this isn't what you want to hear, but I think you probably do need to go back to 130-135. That may be your set point, and you may have to try to accept that. I know you're probably thinking "easy for you to say, you're not me." However, I too am 5'4, and I too lost my period anytime I went under 130ish. I went 4 years without my period, hoping that if I got to say 115-125ish and was eating enough I would get it back, but it never happened. Now I've been at 130ish for about a month, and I got mine back this week. I too am not to thrilled with this weight, but evidently it's where my body needs to be, at least for now. Maybe if I eat enough it will taper down a bit, who knows...but the important thing is if I'm not getting my period at a lower weight (and neither are you) but I am capable of getting it naturally at a higher weight, it's probably safe to assume the lower weight isn't healthy for my body, despite my wishing it could be. Sorry to be the one to tell you what you don't want to hear, but at least you're not alone. Best of luck, and I hope you get it back one way or the other!
muchlinski - Nice to hear from you again :) My BMI is at 19.1, how can that be too low? So frustrating.
Although a healthy BMI is considered between 18.5-24.9, it's most common and healthy to have a BMI between 20-24 for healthy menstruation. Most women cannot have a period with a BMI of 19.1 like you. For instance, my body is very healthy as of now, but I am still not getting my period. Because of this, I am going to need to gain to a BMI of around 20 even though it's very scary for me. I need to do it for my health, and so do you. Eating 1200cal a day right now as I saw in another thread? Ridiculous! Your body burns more than that sleeping all day... :)
I think it just takes a while for it to return even if you are weight restored. I don't know, but losing weight or maintaining on a low weight will hinder you from getting your periods, definitely. And 1200 is a weight loss amount, you know what, love.
(I know I shouldn't be embarrassed, but I am) My BMI is nearly 23 due to 2.5 months of non-stop binging (every single day!). And my periods haven't returned either. :'( I've been eating a lot of carbs and not healthy fat, that could be a reason as to why it's not returning.
I'm also currently working really hard on getting my period back and honestly, I couldn't have done it without the help of wonderful Hedgren! She used to post here, until she moved to her own website http://www.gwynetholwyn.com . In order to get your period back you have to be eating a minimum of 2500 calories, 3000 if you're under 25.
In order to get your period back, you have to reach your Optimal Weight, your set point. So if that's 130 pounds, you'll have to go back to 130 pounds. I'm sure you looked wonderful at that weight! The only thing that's telling you you were 'fat and ugly' at that weight is your ED-messed brain! Believe me, it will get better, but you must dedicate yourself completely to recovery.
Best wishes!
