Overview
Amenorrhea is when you don’t get your menstrual period. There are two kinds of amenorrhea: primary and secondary. Primary amenorrhea is when a person older than 15 has never gotten their first period. Secondary amenorrhea happens when a person doesn’t get a period for more than three months.
How does menstruation work?
A complex system of hormones controls your menstrual cycle. Every cycle, these hormones prepare your uterus for a possible pregnancy. If there’s no pregnancy that cycle, you shed your uterine lining. That shedding is your period. There are many factors that can affect your period including issues with the following organs and structures:
- Hypothalamus: Controls your pituitary gland, which affects ovulation (releasing an egg).
- Ovaries: Store and produce the egg for ovulation and the hormones estrogen and progesterone.
- Uterus: Responds to the hormones by thickening your uterine lining. This lining sheds as your menstrual period if there’s no pregnancy.
What are the types of amenorrhea?
Primary amenorrhea
Primary amenorrhea is when you haven’t gotten your first period by age 15 or within five years of the first signs of puberty (such as developing breasts). It’s usually due to genetic conditions (conditions you’re born with) or acquired abnormalities (conditions that develop after birth).
Secondary amenorrhea
Secondary amenorrhea is when you’ve been getting regular periods, but you stop getting your period for at least three months, or your period stops for six months when they were previously irregular. Common reasons for this type of amenorrhea include:
- Pregnancy.
- Lactation.
- Stress.
- Having a chronic illness.
How common is amenorrhea?
About 1 in 4 women and people assigned female at birth who aren’t pregnant, breastfeeding or going through menopause experience amenorrhea at some point in their lives.
Symptoms
When to see a doctor
Complications
- High blood pressure.
- Diabetes.
- Heart failure.
- Some types of heart valve disease.
Prevention
- Control high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.
- Don't smoke or use tobacco.
- Eat a diet that's low in salt and saturated fat.
- Exercise at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week unless your health care team says not to.
- Get good sleep. Adults should aim for 7 to 9 hours daily.
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Reduce and manage stress.
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