Sixteen months without a period?
I don't know if I'm ready for this post but in honor of how positively I've been working and the fact that I'm beginning to bleed after a much needed nap, I decided this is the life event I wanted to reflect on a bit. :)
What would it mean to you, as a 24 year old, if you haven't had your period for more than 3 months? 6 months? 10 months? 16 months? Come to think of it, I didn't have a period my entire 23rd year!
I'd first lost it in March of 2014 (funny because around that same time I thought I might have quite literally been going insane (extra funny because I did an Insanity Beach body Instructor Training that month!)) and I know exactly why! I was overworking, unhappy, insecure, unhealthy, ashamed, sleep deprived and afraid. I didn't know I was all of these things and I take full responsibility for them now because everything that cased those emotions led to my happiness today. With my missing period, my body was trying to tell me, "Hey, Olivia. I love you. But you are not ready to reproduce; no egg has a chance to survive in these conditions, so I'm not gonna drop any." Thanks body...
If you look up causes of amenorrhea you'll find a few reasons that might have made sense for me.
Of course my first thought would be pregnancy. I decided to end my birth control streak after 5 years about 6 months before I lost my period. This was one of my beginning efforts to control and eliminate the toxins that I take in. A part of me still wonders if I'd actually gotten pregnant but (because the lack of support I was receiving from my partner at time) the idea of needing to get an abortion shook me like a 9.0 earthquake. It felt like that amount of stress alone could have caused a miscarriage. And it had it's lasting effects.
It took me a while to figure that out. When you're in the state of mind, with that amount of stress, that got you thinking you need to overwork in the first place, it's challenging to relax.
I ended up seeing an unexpected angel doctor in May of 2014, who related my symptoms to the MTHFR gene mutation. I tested positively for one copy of c677t. This condition is complex and could mean something different for everyone with one or two copies of either c677t or a1298c, or one of each or two of both.
The simplest way to explain what this means for me is that my body doesn't have the full capacity to brake down and assimilate B-vitamins which play an important role in keeping our bodies running like well-oiled machines. These essential nutrients help convert our food into fuel, allowing us to stay energized throughout the day, especially B-12. They are also responsible for helping us to eliminate toxins, keeping the nervous system healthy, helping us to manage stress, and sleep at night, etc.!
Notice that the majority of the best sources come from meat... did I mention at the time I was diagnosed I'd been a few months into stubbornly trying to eat a Vegan diet, in an effort to prove that it is possible and I could save the planet -all on my own? Okay... so just after finding out I had this gene mutation, there wasn't a whole lot of information on the web about it available because it was a fairly new discovery in the medical industry, plus I was too caught up in my worry that nothing actually changed in my lifestyle for almost a year. I experienced the worst depression of my life that summer, stressing over my acne, bloat/constipation, poor body image, an unhappy relationship (toward myself and others) and the fact that I wasn't getting my period. With the idea of PCOS going through my mind, which strongly encourages a reduction in animal protein and diary, I was eating even less and less natural B-vitamins and more of the synthetic (toxic) B-vitamins. Completely consumed with my pity, how could I have seen any kind light?
I don't know if I'm ready for this post but in honor of how positively I've been working and the fact that I'm beginning to bleed after a much needed nap, I decided this is the life event I wanted to reflect on a bit. :)
What would it mean to you, as a 24 year old, if you haven't had your period for more than 3 months? 6 months? 10 months? 16 months? Come to think of it, I didn't have a period my entire 23rd year!
I'd first lost it in March of 2014 (funny because around that same time I thought I might have quite literally been going insane (extra funny because I did an Insanity Beach body Instructor Training that month!)) and I know exactly why! I was overworking, unhappy, insecure, unhealthy, ashamed, sleep deprived and afraid. I didn't know I was all of these things and I take full responsibility for them now because everything that cased those emotions led to my happiness today. With my missing period, my body was trying to tell me, "Hey, Olivia. I love you. But you are not ready to reproduce; no egg has a chance to survive in these conditions, so I'm not gonna drop any." Thanks body...
If you look up causes of amenorrhea you'll find a few reasons that might have made sense for me.
Of course my first thought would be pregnancy. I decided to end my birth control streak after 5 years about 6 months before I lost my period. This was one of my beginning efforts to control and eliminate the toxins that I take in. A part of me still wonders if I'd actually gotten pregnant but (because the lack of support I was receiving from my partner at time) the idea of needing to get an abortion shook me like a 9.0 earthquake. It felt like that amount of stress alone could have caused a miscarriage. And it had it's lasting effects.
It took me a while to figure that out. When you're in the state of mind, with that amount of stress, that got you thinking you need to overwork in the first place, it's challenging to relax.
I ended up seeing an unexpected angel doctor in May of 2014, who related my symptoms to the MTHFR gene mutation. I tested positively for one copy of c677t. This condition is complex and could mean something different for everyone with one or two copies of either c677t or a1298c, or one of each or two of both.
The simplest way to explain what this means for me is that my body doesn't have the full capacity to brake down and assimilate B-vitamins which play an important role in keeping our bodies running like well-oiled machines. These essential nutrients help convert our food into fuel, allowing us to stay energized throughout the day, especially B-12. They are also responsible for helping us to eliminate toxins, keeping the nervous system healthy, helping us to manage stress, and sleep at night, etc.!
 | ||||||
No comments:
Post a Comment