Throughout a female’s life, she will experience many hormonal changes. The earliest transition comes between childhood and adolescence. On average, a girl begins menstruating around the age of 12. In some cases the menstrual cycle can begin as early as 8 or as late as 16. If a female has not started her menstrual cycle by the age of 16 she is often diagnosed with primary amenorrhea. Amenorrhea occurs when the levels of female reproductive hormones are not sufficient to stimulate menstruation. The most common causes of secondary amenorrhea include malnutrition, over-exercising, stress and breast feeding.
Malnutrition can come in varying degrees. When a girl is anorexic (refuses to eat for fear of gaining weight or losing her figure) or bulimic (eats and then induces vomiting for fear of gaining weight or losing her figure) she will often delay the onset of her menstrual cycle, or lose it once it has started. Girls that have a diet lacking the essential amino acids and fats can also be more likely to develop secondary amenorrhea. This is often the case with vegetarian female athletes. A well rounded diet, with plenty of whole food sources of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and healthy fats will often return the amenorrheic woman to where she needs to be.
Mild to moderate exercise is a great way to maintain optimal health and wellness. Exercise increases the metabolism, assists in weight management, improves mental clarity, as well as many other great things. Intensive or excessive exercise can lead to hormonal imbalance in both men and women. Exercise creates stress on our organs, muscles, and joints because it involves work. This “good” stress can be beneficial but in excess, it creates a rise in the stress regulating hormone called cortisol. As the hormone cortisol increases in our body continually, sex hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone decrease. When these hormones are out of balance, many of the symptoms associated with women’s health present. These include PMS, weight gain, acne, abnormal menstrual cycles, hot flashes, mood swings, bone loss, osteoporosis, infertility and more.
Increasing cortisol is the body’s response to any stressful situation. As noted above, intensive or excessive exercise can induce chronic stress in a woman’s body, leading to imbalances between cortisol and other health sustaining hormones. Chronic stress in any form will act similarly in a woman’s body. Stress comes in all shapes and sizes through physical, chemical, and emotional means.
Some examples in everyday life include: financial pressure, work assignments, death in the family, children leaving home for school, marriage, poor diet, auto accidents, chemical irritants, etc. The stress regulators in our body respond similarly to all of the stressors listed above. No matter the source of stress, the human body’s response to stress is to release cortisol, and chronic release of cortisol in the body leads to imbalance of hormones, which lead to symptoms. These symptoms are good for us, and should not be covered up because they warn us that we are no longer in balance.
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