I never wanted to believe that my bodyweight wasn’t high enough and that I was working out too much to lose my period.
I wasn’t working out as much as I had heard other women do. Some of them were preparing for figure competitions and had extremely low body fat percentages. I used to run a ton, but my body fat percentage was never too low. For example, even at my leanest, I never really had visible abs.
So I didn’t think there was anything wrong with my weight. But why was my period still missing?
No One Had The Answer
Over the years, I saw three or four different gynaecologists to figure this thing out.
Only one of them pointed out that maybe I need to gain some weight (my BMI was 19 back then!) but she wasn’t sure and she didn’t insist me to do it, so I just didn’t do anything. And truthfully, I was so deep into my body obsession that even if she had told me I needed to gain a bit, I probably wouldn’t have listened anyway. All I cared about was being skinny.
At the end of 2016, I saw an acupuncturist. He was the first person who ever told me that loss of period can be caused by too intense workouts. However, once he saw my BMI which was back then 22.1 (about 3 units lower than now — I'm probably around 25 now) he said that my weight is normal so there is probably another reason why my period was missing. He wanted figured that more acupuncture would help… It didn't.
My best friend is a physical therapist who has worked with many athletes. I always ask her opinion when I have any health problems. So I did that also when I was suspecting if my bodyweight might be too low and workouts too intense to cause my HA. And she thought that this can absolutely not be the case.
I LOVE her and she is brilliant, however she had just not seen women with HA and didn’t know any better. And she wasn’t supposed to know because that’s not her specialty!
Other than this one doctor ten years ago, everyone else told me that I can’t possibly have hypothalamic amenorrhea because I’m not underweight and my workouts aren’t excessive.
By the end of 2016, I had been almost ten years without a period and my insomnia and exhaustion were getting more intense every day. I started reading more about hypothalamic amenorrhea (NPNW) and realizing that I actually might have that.
However, I wasn’t sure because everyone else told me this can’t be the case..
If you’re in a similar situation where I was 14 months ago:
- You’re desperate and know you need to fix your health but you don’t know what to do next…
- You're not sure what exactly could be wrong, because your eating habits and exercise doesn't seem anything excessive…
- You've heard that you may need to gain some weight, but at the same time, you wonder: What if I put on weight but my period will still not come back?
If that's how you feel, then I want to help you. Fill out the application below and I'll see if I can help you!
https://kerstenkimura.com/work-with-me/