Every woman has faced at least once an episode in which her period was late. Thoughts that something is wrong appear immediately, as does the idea of pregnancy, this being the most common cause that leads to menstrual cycle irregularities. However, the body can also lose its hormonal balance for other reasons that you probably wouldn’t have considered, such as intense sports, sudden weight loss or stress. All these factors can lead to a delay in menstruation.
Menstruation occurs monthly, and the period can vary from 3 to 7 days, so a woman normally has between 11 and 13 periods in a year, depending on how long the menstrual cycle lasts. Calculations may change when menstrual irregularities occur.
In this article you will find information about the delay or lack of menstruation, known in medical terms as amenorrhea, how to calculate your menstrual cycle, and what you should do if you face this problem.
The main causes of delayed menstruation
Pregnancy
Pregnancy is the most common and common reason for a woman to experience late periods. Generally, in sexually active people, the cycle stops suddenly when the egg is fertilized. If you don’t know you have other health problems, the easiest way to unravel the mystery is to take a pregnancy test.
Breast-feeding
Women who have become mothers will face menstrual irregularities for quite a long time. The cycle will gradually return, but while breastfeeding there is a possibility that your period will continue to be late.
Sudden weight loss or weight gain
A drastic weight loss cure will affect the proper functioning of your body, and this can also be seen in menstruation. If you have suddenly lost weight in a short period of time, you may experience delays in your period. The same goes for rapid weight gain. Both situations, both a weight below normal and the accumulation of excess kilograms, change the level of hormones in the body – a possible cause of menstrual cycle irregularities. Intense sports or physical activities with high effort
Women who do performance sports have this problem, their menstruation is often delayed. So if you’ve been going to the gym more than usual, overexerting yourself physically, and your period hasn’t come on time, this could be the cause. The explanation is simple: in case of high physical effort, i.e. hours of overwork, the body will try to prevent ovulation, estrogen secretion and menstruation.
The stress
We live in the age of stress, a phenomenon that occurs at every turn, even when we don’t realize it. Major stress has an extremely aggressive impact on the body, and this is also seen in menstrual cycle irregularities, because it acts on the hypothalamus, the part of the brain responsible for hormone activity.
Contraceptives or other medications
If you have been taking birth control pills for a while and have recently come off them, you may experience late periods. The cycle will adjust over time, when the body resumes its ovulation process altogether. Hormonal disturbances can also occur if you follow certain drug treatments.
Menopause and premenopause
We generally wonder why women are nervous on their periods. The answer is related to premenstrual syndrome, that disorder that you can feel before your period occurs and that manifests itself through various symptoms and conditions. When you approach menopause, that is, you go through the premenopause period, the body changes, the level of estrogen continues to decrease, and ovulation returns more and more irregularly. Menstrual symptoms gradually disappear and are replaced by menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes or constant fatigue. During premenopause, it is possible that your period will be quite late and your menstrual cycle will be totally irregular.
How is the menstrual cycle calculated?
It is important to know the date of your last period and thus calculate the duration of your menstrual cycle. This is the number of days from the time of menstruation until the start of the next one. The average is 28 days between the two periods, but it can vary between 21 and 35 days. You can say that you are late if 5 – 7 days have passed since the date you calculated, when your period should have appeared.
What should you do if you notice irregularities in your menstrual cycle, regardless of whether or not you have identified one of the above, most common causes for this type of problem? Consult a doctor, be it your family doctor, gynecologist or endocrinologist, to tell you what to do.
