how I got my period back after 10+ years on birth control

I was 18 years old when I started taking birth control. I went with the pill option. To be honest, I can’t even tell you why I started taking it. I was not having sex. I don’t remember my cramps being unmanageable. I believe I told my gynecologist my periods were irregular (which looking back, is not surprising in the slightest for a 5’11 young female whose body fat percentage was most definitely under 15% and I played volleyball pretty much everyday). I didn’t ask any questions - and I hate that I didn’t know the questions to ask. I took that pill every day, never missing (because hello, type A personality). Eventually, I had reason to stay on the pill. Having a baby was not part of my plan in my early 20s - or Ryan’s. So another couple of years on the pill went by. Another couple years of being religious in taking it every day. During the last few years I was on the pill was when my passion for health and nutrition peaked and I became a certified health coach and nutritionist. I began nurturing my body with foods that supported my active lifestyle, figured out how to use nutrition and natural supplements to combat my compromised immune system (due to an inherited low white blood cell count) and adopted a holistic approach to health. Yet, I was still on a pill that I was still not asking any questions about.

In October 2018 - about a year and a half after Ryan and I had been married - I was becoming more comfortable with the idea of having a baby. Yes, comfortable. I know there are women in this world who can not wait to be a mom and I think being a mother is the most rewarding role to carry, but being pregnant does not excite me. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to be a mom - because I know my child/children will become my world and that being a mom will give me a new, even greater purpose in this world, but in the spirit of keeping it real - I just don’t know if I will ever be “ready” and I have learned that is a normal feeling for me. So there I was, in October of 2018 and I woke up one morning and told Ryan, “I am going off birth control today.” Keep in mind, Ryan and I had talked about this already and he was respectful of me going at my own pace with essentially prepping my body for pregnancy. Type A Alec also immediately made an online order for prenatal vitamins. I, like most young women uneducated about how pregnancy realistically pans out, thought “okay, I am going to get pregnant now.” Nope. Big nope. A couple months had gone by and I had not gotten my period once (which by the way, while on the pill I would get my period on the first day of the placebo pill, every month). I then made an appointment to visit my gynecologist and update her on what was going on. She made the recommendation to take the progestin challenge, which is done by giving a progestin medication and seeing if that induces a period. I love my gynecologist and have an great relationship with her, and while I respected her recommendation I let her know that (at that point) I wanted to see if I could regulate my hormones naturally versus essentially shove some more hormones down my throat like I had been doing the past 10 years.

At this point, it had been about 5 months since I went off birth control, still had not had a period and decided I did not want to take the progestin challenge. Instead, I started seeing an acupuncturist who specialized in balancing women’s hormones. I went all in. I saw her once a week, for 6 weeks straight. I embraced Chinese traditional medicine for the first time in my life and took: Dang Gui Four Combination, the supreme blood tonic formulation of Chinese tonic herbalism and Chaste tree berry, which works by modulating progesterone levels, thereby promoting regular ovulation and more balanced hormone levels. I also rubbed pelvic decongestant essential oil on my stomach every night.

I had already known how valuable a balanced, nutrient-dense diet based in whole, plant-based foods, quality proteins and healthy fats is for overall health, but with inspiration from my acupuncturist I began educating myself on how food could play a role in hormone health and potentially onsetting a period. I made a point to eat (more) fruits rich in vitamin C, like papaya, mango and pineapple as I learned that vitamin C can stimulate the oestrogen hormone causing periods to get preponed. Pineapples also contain bromelain, which affects your uterus lining by softening it and helping it shed. Prior to going through this experience, I never really ate beets, but found research to suggest they were a period superfood because they were rich in iron and could help increase the circulation of blood (in the uterus). I learned that dates are helpful in that they generate heat in the pelvic region, causing further contractions in the uterus and is a reason for shedding of uterine lining. I have always loved cooking with turmeric, ginger and honey - and once I heard those too could help onset a period I found every way to add them into my diet. In general, I made an effort to eat more warm meals (versus lots of cold smoothies and salads), as I learned that warming up the body from within can increase blood flow.

I did a lot of personal care in those 6 weeks and learned a lot about my body’s needs to get my period back. I could feel my body changing, from within. I was in the best mood I had been in in months. But - still no period. I switched to seeing my acupuncturist every other week for another 4-6 weeks, but still no period. And, it was getting expensive. (They billed my insurance, but my deductible was high). I wanted so badly for the holistic approach to work for me, but as every day and every week passed with still no period, I was having a hard time justifying staying on my current path in trying to onset my period.

8 months of still no period and I found myself back on the phone with my gynecologist asking her to please prescribe me the oral medication for the progestin challenge. I thought, “this has to work.” If this doesn’t work, then what? Well, I had to address that “what” because the challenge did not work for me. Honestly, at that point - a negative progestin challenge did not surprise me. The next step was blood work - and what came back spoke volumes to me. In layman’s terms, my hormones were out of wack. My gynecologist and another specialist I had been introduced to in the office tried to make sense of the blood work results to me, but the only thing I took away was that, “damn, my body is harboring a lot of stress and it’s finally showing.” Up until this point in my life, I may have been good at hiding stress in how I presented myself, but I couldn’t lie to myself anymore. I always prided myself on being someone who could take a lot on, multi-task, attempt to be excellent at everything I put energy into and someone who never stopped grinding. I thought I became numb to the feelings of stress that kind of lifestyle brought, but my bloodwork results opened my eyes as my adrenal and cortisol levels were through the roof. (Cortisol release can suppress normal levels of reproductive hormones, potentially leading to abnormal ovulation, anovulation (i.e. no ovulation), or amenorrhea (the absence of menstruation.))

I also had to have an honest conversation with myself about how my very clean diet and regimented exercise routine could be a contributing factor to my lack of period. After a few recommendations from friends (IRL and on Instagram) I picked up the book, “No Period. Now What? A Guide to Regaining Your Cycles and Improving Your Fertility.” It is filled with many anecdotes from women, many of whom had stories similar to mine. No period. Active lifestyles. A history of orthorexia (an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy). The book’s authors were big proponents for “going all in” on changing your lifestyle if you identified with hypothalamic amenorrhea (where your reproductive system is not working, usually as a result of a combination of (over)exercising, not eating enough to match your active lifestyle, stress and/or genetics). The recommendation of “going all in” was to gain weight and do that by cutting out workouts completely and adding in “unhealthy” and “junk food” and looking at those foods as recovery/fertility foods. In doing this, the goal is to turn the body’s reproductive system back on, which is most likely dormant as a result of a low body fat percentage. This approach worked so well for so many women whose stories were shared in this book - and while it made sense to me both logically and scientifically that gaining weight would help to onset my period, I couldn’t abandon who I was and what made me happy because that seemed so counterintuitive to mitigating stress in my life. If I had to stop working out and (over)eat food that usually made me feel lethargic, unmotivated and uncomfortable - I would feel like a piece of shit and most definitely be more stressed than I already was. I knew I had to take a path that was unique for my journey - one where I acknowledged my stress, had the hard conversations with myself about “cutting back” on workouts and gaining some “healthy” weight and identifying some new goals in my life.

I love my routine and do feel my best when I am busy, working out and eating a clean diet. That is not a lie. But, I had become numb to my routine and was so disciplined that I didn’t know when enough was enough. I knew the solution was to do less. I pride myself on always challenging myself, pushing myself outside my comfort zone and truly believe that to see change you will need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. That mantra was more true now than ever, in that I knew it would be a challenge for me (at times) to do less high intensity workouts (because I am an athlete). It was going to be hard as hell not to be a complete savage in my workouts. It was going to be uncomfortable to do more of “nothing.” It was going to be a tough pill to swallow but I believed that God had prepped me for this. He made me really good at being uncomfortable with challenging situations, and now, it was time to learn to be uncomfortable with a new challenge and be mentally tougher than ever.

I had been through an emotional rollercoaster for nearly a year and what I decided, after all the bloodwork, doctors appointments, acupuncture and reading was that I will never stop being me - the woman who’s goal oriented and works hard as hell. I was just going to establish some new goals and work hard at a lifestyle better suited for these new goals. For me, it was all about perspective. My journey to getting my period back was not one thing. It took patience, determination and action (to make lifestyle changes) and 13 months later, I got it back. I am not “regular” and I still believe my body is figuring itself out, but I am continuing to show my body gratitude and patience in getting there without abandoning the core of who I am, what I love and what feeds my soul.