Late or Missed Period? Read this Before you Freak Out

I think most women have been there. Your visit from Aunt Flo is late, and the panic starts to set in. Whether you're a day late or missed a period altogether, I’d just like to inform you that there are many reasons, besides the obvious, that your period could be MIA. 

So, go buy a pregnancy test if there is a chance you could be pregnant and put your mind at ease, but my hope is that this article will add a little bit more of a comprehensive picture to the mysteries and delicate nature of your cycle. 

PS- If you want to learn how you can use your cycle to your advantage and uplevel your life, check this out.

If I’m not pregnant, then what the heck happened to my period? 

Your cycle is actually quite sensitive to many factors and can be disrupted for a host of reasons. You may have experienced an anovulatory cycle in which you don’t ovulate. This is one of the main factors in a missed period, as your body has no need to create or shed the uterine lining if no egg is released. Or if your period is late but then arrives, certain factors could have disrupted your body's usual rhythms. 

Let’s look at some reasons you might have a delayed, or outright skip a period. 

1. Increased Stress

In times of increased stress and emotional turmoil, our body can go into “fight or flight” mode and take away resources from functions that aren’t essential to life support. A few days of this could lead to a delayed period, or chronic stress could lead to an anovulatory cycle, as the body senses it is not a safe time for reproduction. Have a think back to your stress levels over the last month to consider if this could be a factor. 

2. Coming off Birth Control

If you have come off birth control recently, it can take a while for your body to get back to its normal rhythms without synthetic hormones. You may experience irregular cycles, or even missed periods for a while as your body returns to balance. 

3. Dietary Changes

Major dietary changes, nutrient deficiencies, or undereating can all play factors in your hormone regulation, and stress on your body. For example, if you switched to a vegetarian diet recently, your body is still learning how to cope with the new input it’s getting. Being deficient in nutrients on a macro level, such as not getting enough protein, carbohydrates, or fat, or not enough micronutrients such as iron can impact your body’s ability to properly create the sex hormones essential to your reproductive cycle. In the same vein, undereating has the same effect, especially when insufficient calories are a factor. 

4. Hormone Imbalances

Hormonal imbalances, or conditions like Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, and Hypo, or Hyper Thyroid can cause a disruption to the necessary hormone levels for your cycle to progress normally. If you think this may be a factor for you, your healthcare provider will be able to test your levels to find out exactly what is going on for you hormonally. 

5. Weight Loss or Gain

Sudden or significant changes in your weight can cause a disruption to your cycle because your body is trying to catch up with the adequate hormone levels for your current weight. Too little or too many fat cells can also disrupt the levels of a hormone called leptin, which plays a key role in menstruation and ovulation. 

6. Perimenopause

Depending on your age, irregular cycles could also be a sign that perimenopause is occurring. This is a natural phase of life in which the ovaries begin to shut down and no longer release an egg. Other symptoms include hot flashes, trouble sleeping, and mood swings. Most women begin to notice perimenopause symptoms in their 40’s. 

7. Over Exercising

Exercising too much can disrupt your cycle in the same way diet and stress can. Over-exercising puts a lot of stress on your body, and can also make it difficult to maintain adequate caloric and nutrient intake. While generally exercise is a great thing for your body, be sure not to overdo it. 

8. Major Routine Disruptions

If you’ve been traveling lately, changed shifts at work, or started sleeping differently, these disruptions to your routine also affect the rhythms in your body and the release of hormones. Keep this in mind if your cycle is thrown off after a big shift in your normal day to day. 

9. And Finally, Pregnancy 

Yes, of course, if you are sexually active with a male partner, pregnancy is usually the first culprit we look to for a period missing in action. However, I hope this article showed you that your cycle is actually a lot more complicated and helped you gain a deeper understanding of your body’s complexities. 

Be sure to check out my series on menstrual cycle tracking, for a really cool way to get more in tune with your own inner seasons.