Amenorrhea: What Does it Mean When I Miss My Period?

Amenorrhea is almost a taboo subject, because no one wants to be the first to admit something might be wrong down there. In fact, we’re practically taught that periods are mysterious things that cause trauma and often get out of whack for no apparent reason. The cultural myths we’ve created surrounding menstruation often keep women from accessing important information about how our bodies function. If you’ve missed periods, there’s a cause. If you’ve missed three in a row, you have what’s called amenorrhea.

What is Amenorrhea?

There are two types of amenorrhea: primary and secondary. Primary amenorrhea refers to a woman over the age of sixteen who has not yet had a menstrual period. Secondary amenorrhea refers to a woman who has had periods in the past but has not menstruated for three months in a row. For secondary amenorrhea to be considered problematic, the woman must not be pregnant or menopausal.

What Causes Amenorrhea?

Primary amenorrhea happens very infrequently in Western women, and is usually a result of an abnormal physiology or severe malnutrition. This means that when Western women experience amenorrhea, it is because they were born without an organ (i.e. a uterus) crucial to menstruation, purposeful starvation (i.e. anorexia), or dehabilitating childhood poverty (i.e. no food). Primary amenorrhea occurs more frequently in the developing world, where starvation and severe malnourishment are still serious threats to many peoples.

It is much more difficult to diagnose causes of secondary amenorrhea, which is the more common of the two. About one percent of women experience secondary amenorrhea at some point in their lives, but diagnosis of the cause is still something medical professionals struggle with. This is probably because some of the causes are lifestyle induced, while the others are medically based.