My Story with Amenorrhea & Running
Okay guys, this one is for the ladies. Come back for less TMI posting, tomorrow.
Okay, now that the guys are gone, let’s get cozy and talk about periods and the lack of periods.
I want to first begin saying that I never had super regular periods. Ever since I got my period around age 15 (? Is that right mom) I was never ‘regular.’ I would go back and forth between short cycles and longer cycles, but my period always came. Then, I started running and quickly it became something I loved and eventually something that I was obsessed with. Slowly, my obsession took over and I slid into a flow blown ED and exercise addiction > you can read more about that here.
During that season of exercise addiction and anorexia, I lost my period completely. At first I didn’t really realize I had lost my period. It had always been kind of here or there, but after a couple months of not getting a period, I started to wonder. I wondered for a long time and stressed out each month I didn’t get my cycle. I knew that it wasn’t normal to not have a cycle and eventually told my mom about it. When I went to my doctor, she told me it wasn’t a big deal and a lot of female athletes struggle with ammenhora. She also told me it wouldn’t affect my ability to have children and would come back on it’s own. So I took her advice, continued over exercising and under eating and my period still lay dormant for years.
It wasn’t until I began seeing that it ISN’T normal to not have a cycle (shout out to Janae at HRG and Robyn at The Real Life RD for opening my eyes) and it can pose a problem, that I began to seek help from recovering from anorexia. I always have wanted to be a wife and mother and the thought of not being able to have children because of starving myself, crushed me. I wanted to get that period back and I knew that I would do whatever I had to, to heal my body.
I think the sad thing about our culture and especially the fitness/running community is that SO many people equate thinness with speed/fitness/health/worth and don’t understand the risks that come into play when we ignore crucial signs (i.e. our bodies not having a period). The reproductive system is the FIRST system to shut down when your body is under too much stress. And when that happened, I (eventually) realized I needed to take a step back and evaluate what was actually happening. It wasn’t that I just normally skip periods, it wasn’t that it is normal to not have a period as a runner, it wasn’t normal and I had to do something about it.
After talking with more people and researching a ton, I realized that I had to eat more food and run less. So, that’s what I did. And after a year (plus) of eating more nutritiously dense food, running less, and gaining 30 lbs (YES THIRTY POUNDS) my period came back, one glorious morning. (Fun fact, my period actually came back when I was visiting Landon’s house for the first time – can you say #awkward)
Was gaining weight and recovering my period hard? Yes. Was it worth it? Of course.
Getting my body back to a healthy stage is important. As a female runner, I think it is easy to think that ‘the less body fat I have the faster/stronger I will be.’ But, many female runners (myself included years ago) miss the price tag. When you don’t have enough body fat, over train and lose their periods, runners put themselves GREATLY at risk for for a decrease of bone mass which can be irreversible. This isn’t something to mess around with. And although it is hard to gain weight and get back to that homeostasis – the long term health benefits are so worth a few months of discomfort.
I do want to point out that getting your period back after not having it for whatever amount of time, can take a lot longer and need a lot more medical attention. Thankfully, I just needed more calories and a higher percentage of body fat on me to get that body working the way it was supposed to work! If you are struggling with this, don’t be discouraged, periods do and can come back, some may take a lot more work and others come back even quicker than mine did.
IT is so worth gaining that extra body fat, eating some extra calories to have a healthy body. Think long term, talk to your doctor and if you are missing that period, really fight to get that period back. It is worth it.