Can Stress Delay Your Period?

How Stress Affects the Menstrual Cycle

Stress is often considered a negative factor. But it is not inherently harmful to you. It is a natural experience to face mental or physical challenges. In response to stress, several processes occur in your body that can help you overcome the adversity you are facing.

Stress can cause many changes in your body. It affects your mental and physical health. Stress can also affect your monthly period. The rise and fall in levels of different hormones in the body control the menstrual cycle, and psychological stress has a high impact on these hormone levels. 

Repeated rise and fall of different hormones in the body regulates your menstrual cycle. 

Stress has a major influence on these hormone levels. Before learning how stress affects the menstrual cycle, let’s first review the hormonal changes that happen during the menstrual cycle.

If stressed, your body releases a surge of stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol. The release of these two hormones helps you cope with the stress. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis controls this response. 

The HPA axis also interacts with another system called the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis. And the HPG axis, which is responsible for producing sex hormones. These sex hormones play a major role in regulating your period.

If you are highly stressed, the repeated activation of your HPA axis can cause changes in your HPG axis. This can lead to a condition called hypothalamic amenorrhoea (HA). In this condition, your brain doesn’t give the correct signals to produce the necessary hormones to regulate your period. This causes delays in your period or irregular periods.

Common Signs That Stress is Affecting Your Period

It’s a basic knowledge that stress can affect your menstrual cycle. 

But how do you know when your menstrual cycle is affected due to stress?

Stress can affect your menstrual cycle in different ways. Even though the delayed period is the concern you are reading about here, stress can also cause other symptoms that can indicate it is affecting your menstrual cycle.

The symptoms may vary in each individual, depending on the severity and individual response. If you have mild stress, you may only experience delayed periods for a few days, whereas some others may have longer menstrual delays.

If you experience the following signs, it might indicate that stress is affecting your menstrual cycle.

• Long menstrual cycles - Excess stress may cause delayed periods, resulting in a longer menstrual cycle that exceeds 35 days.
• Irregular body temperature - Variations in the body’s temperature during rest, sleep, or idle.
• Abdominal cramps - A longer menstrual cycle may lead to a prolonged process of the uterine lining shedding. This may induce abdominal cramps.
• Mood changes - When under stress, an individual may experience sadness, anger, and anxiety
• Changes in appetite – If you are stressed, you tend to be more focused on your ongoing problems, and you ignore the hunger signals sent by the body.
• Heavy bleeding during periods – An imbalance in estrogen and progesterone levels caused by stress can cause heavy bleeding during periods.
• Interferes with blood sugar - Stress raises cortisol levels and unbalances your blood sugar.

Other factors that contribute to a delayed period

Even though the main topic of this blog is “The impact of stress on the menstrual cycle”, it is also important to be aware of other factors that can delay the menstrual cycle. Apart from stress, many other factors can affect your menstrual cycle and delay your period.

If you have not attained menopause yet, your menstrual cycle usually lasts 28 days. A menstrual cycle which lasts between 21 and 40 days is considered healthy.

If your period doesn’t fall within these ranges, especially when your period is delayed, it raises some concerns. Stress can be one of the main causes of delayed periods, but there are other causes that can contribute to this. If your period doesn’t fall within normal ranges, it could be because of one of the following reasons.

• Obesity - High body weight can cause irregularities in your hormonal levels. It can lead to the overproduction of estrogen. Too much estrogen can cause irregularities in your cycle and may even stop your periods altogether.
• Low body weight - Decreased body weight can cause irregular periods or even cessation of periods. Decreased body fat can cause a reduction in oestrogen production and can pause ovulation.
• Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) - PCOS causes your body to produce male hormone androgen in excess. This hormonal imbalance causes cysts on the ovaries. This can cause a delay in your periods or even make the periods appear earlier than the expected date.
• Birth control - There will be changes in your menstrual cycle when you start or stop using birth control. It can take up to 3 months for your menstrual cycle to become regular again after you stop taking the pill.
• Chronic diseases - Some chronic diseases (Eg: Diabetes) can also affect your menstrual cycle. Diseases can make changes in your hormonal levels and make your period irregular.
• Perimenopause - Estrogen levels begin to fluctuate during the perimenopause (the time during which your body makes the natural transition to menopause). This fluctuation can alter a woman’s menstrual cycle. 
• Pregnancy - You should not rule out pregnancy as a possible reason for your delayed period, even if you are using contraception. You can still get pregnant even if you use birth control correctly.

How to Manage Stress and Regulate Your Period

You may not be able to address the stress directly. And you may not always be able to manage your stress level or control your stress response. However, you improve the regularity of your menstrual cycle by incorporating specific measures. 

Learning how to cope with stress may positively affect your menstrual health. Making lifestyle changes and maintaining a healthy body weight may help reduce stress and regulate your periods. You may incorporate natural ways to reduce stress. These measures will help reduce your stress levels and, in turn, regulate your periods - 

• Maintaining a healthy body weight - Maintaining a normal weight helps reduce inflammation and regulates hormones.
• Consuming a balanced diet - A balanced diet, rich in nutrition, supports brain functions and reduces stress. Also, it helps prevent blood sugar level fluctuations, which can trigger stress.
• Maintaining hydration - Dehydration can alter your mental status and cause stress. Maintaining normal hydration will reduce both physical and mental stress.
• Practising relaxation techniques - Relaxation techniques like yoga, breathing techniques, and meditation reduce stress hormone levels.
• Getting quality sleep - Quality sleep strengthens your brain functions and elevates your mood.

When to Seek Medical Advice

If you miss a period, it does not always indicate pregnancy or an underlying health issue. Sometimes, even just mental stress can be the cause of your menstrual irregularities. But when your periods are irregular, or you’ve missed a period but know you’re not pregnant, talk with your doctor as soon as possible. There are many reasons and conditions that could be causing the issue.

There’s no need to wait for the right time to talk to your gynaecologist about changes in your menstrual cycle. Consulting your doctor as soon as you notice any changes can help detect certain conditions early and improve treatment outcomes.

If you have heavy bleeding, fever, severe pain, nausea and vomiting, and bleeding that lasts longer than 7 days, contact a doctor immediately.

Conclusion

Understanding how psychological stress affects your menstrual cycle can help you rule out possible causes of menstrual irregularities.  Knowing that stress can disrupt your period doesn’t rule out the need to see a doctor when your cycle is irregular. Your period pattern tells us a lot about your gynaecological health. If your menstrual cycle does not occur within the normal time frame, it is considered a late period. Delayed periods can be caused by lifestyle changes or even some underlying health issues.

If your period is delayed every time or your periods are irregular, we are always ready to help you. Our team of health professionals at Nirva Health is ready to provide solutions to your health concerns. You can approach Nirva for safe and effective medical advice for all your problems related to menstrual health.