A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO AMENORRHEA

Did you have delayed periods because you hit puberty pretty late?

Have you ever gone without a period in a month and been confused about whether to be relieved or afraid?

Have you ever been worried sick about missing more than two periods in a row? 

You are not alone. Most women have at least once in their life experienced Amenorrhea. Let’s go through what this means for you and your body.

WHAT IS AMENORRHEA?

Simply stated, Amenorrhea syndrome is the absence of periods for the duration of a month or sometimes more than a month. Depending on your symptoms, you might be suffering from one of the two types of Amenorrhea. They are as follows:

• Primary Amenorrhea – This happens when you have not had your first period even after reaching 15 years of age.

• Secondary Amenorrhea – This happens when you are having regular periods, which stop suddenly, and this has been happening for three or more months.

Are you somebody who wishes periods did not exist at all? All of us do, sometimes. This could be because of the discomfort that is usually brought on by our periods. But we don’t realise that periods don’t have to be uncomfortable. It’s not your period that’s bad; it’s your pad!

The pad you choose should be not only capable of handling your flow but also comfortable. A RIO Pad, for example, has been designed to take care of all your needs:

• Our global quality absorbent filling converts liquid to gel form, holding in nearly 1000x its weight. This ensures you have no feelings of wetness or backflow of blood.
• Our pads are hour-glass shaped with not one but two wings – in the front and back of the pad to make sure it stays in place, and all bunching or annoying rolling-up-one's-bum is avoided.
• We also have a special feature. The side leak guards are tiny raised boundaries along the sides of the pad, which stop any sort of trickle leakage down your thighs.
• RIO combines this leak-proof architecture with equal concern for your skin. The top layer of our pad is woven from soft fibres that do not scratch your skin or give you rashes. We do not use Sulphur, parabens or any chemical fragrance-free to avoid irritating your skin or harming your health.

Better your period with RIO!

SYMPTOMS OF AMENORRHEA

You could have a few symptoms of Amenorrhea depending on its causes. Some Amenorrhea symptoms are listed below:

• Having headaches
• Acne
• Experiencing pelvic pain
• Your vision is becoming weak
• You start losing hair
• You start growing facial hair
• Experiencing discharge from your nipples that is like milk
• Amenorrhea symptoms in teenagers include having no growth in the size of your breasts (mainly for primary amenorrhea)

CAUSES OF AMENORRHEA

You might be experiencing Amenorrhea due to a lot of different reasons. Some are natural, while others could hint at a medical condition. Some of the reasons you might be experiencing Amenorrhea symptoms are:

• As you move from one stage of your life to another, your body changes. You could miss a period or two because of this, and it’s not a reason to be alarmed. Some of them are:
  • Pregnancy
  • Menopause
  • Breastfeeding
• Contraceptives – You might have been on birth control pills and are not having your periods. Even after stopping the pills, it sometimes takes a little while for your reproductive system to go back to its normal routine and start ovulation. All types of contraceptives, including implanted contraceptives, intrauterine devices, and injectables, can cause you to experience this.
• Medications – Some medications can cause your periods to stop. These are as follows:
  • taking antidepressants
  • Chemotherapy for cancer
  • pills for blood pressure
  • antipsychotic pills
• Your lifestyle – Some of your lifestyle choices can cause you to experience Amenorrhea, such as:
  • Being underweight
  • Exercising excessively
  • Stressing too much
• Hormonal imbalance – You might have a hormonal imbalance owing to a lot of reasons, including:
  • Thyroid disease
  • A tumour in your pituitary gland.
  • Early Menopause
  • PCOS or Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
• Problems in your sexual organs – You might be suffering from Amenorrhea because your sexual organs are deformed or have some kind of structural issue. You might have something in your:
  • Vagina - A wall or a membrane in the vagina may prevent blood from the cervix or uterus from flowing out of the body. This is a structural abnormality that you might have if you’re experiencing Amenorrhea.
  • Reproductive organs – Sometimes, you could have missing reproductive organs such as a vagina, uterus, cervix or other reproductive organs that never fully formed during your birth in the first place. They can cause you to never experience menstruation.

Amenorrhea causes a lot of complications, such as cardiovascular diseases, trouble getting pregnant, infertility issues, osteoporosis, pelvic pain, etc.

TREATMENT

Your doctor may want to conduct a pelvic exam to check for any abnormalities in your reproductive organs. In addition to this, if you’re experiencing primary Amenorrhea, your doctor may check your genitals and breasts to check if the other puberty changes are occurring as they should.

Finding the underlying cause/s of Amenorrhea may require a little time and some tests to be done, such as:

• • • Pregnancy test
    • Thyroid test
    • Prolactin test
    • Ovary test to check their functioning
    • Male hormone test
    • Hormone challenge test to check if your periods have stopped because you have low levels of oestrogen
    • Ultrasound
    • Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
    • Hysteroscopy to look at the inside of your cervix and uterus

Amenorrhea treatment depends on the cause of your Amenorrhea. Birth control pills and other hormone therapies usually will get your periods to come back. If your Amenorrhea is caused due to thyroid or pituitary gland imbalances, it can be treated with medications. If it’s some structural problem causing you to have Amenorrhea, you might want to consider surgery.

It is important to strive for balance in all spheres of your life, whether it is work, stressing out, exercising or even eating. Everything in moderation will not hurt you.

Keep tracking your periods and be aware of any changes that are happening in your menstrual cycle; this could help you in detecting any serious problems just when they are beginning.