How I Got My Period Back
Вставка
- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
- This is the story of my recovery from Hypothalamic Amenorrhea, or, HA - the absence of a period.
Going "All in" to get it back. The ups and downs. The difference between my period recovery story and others and more.
I took a holistic approach to healing my Hypothalamic Amenorrhea, doing a lot of the recovery work myself and worked with a nutritional therapy practitioner. I didn't have an eating disorder but I did have eating disorder tendencies and I think that people on all sides of the spectrum can benefit from my story.
If you need any help or have any questions about recovering your period, just ask! If I can't help you I can direct you to someone who can.
Other places to find me:
INSTAGRAM
/ danisheriff
PODCAST
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
WEBSITE
danisheriff.com
![Daily Habits To Get And Keep Your Period [Hypothalamic Amenorrhea]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/NbaGXIpfTaU/mqdefault.jpg)
I felt you when you said "I wasn't thin enough for people to worry about me" because honestly I'm the same. I'm currently recovering from ha and I felt this at the beginning of this journey because I'm only 52 kgs and 5'2 so I'm not at all looking scarily skinny or lean!!
It's amazing how many people that one sentence resonated with!
Same here. I’m not lean but my mistake was to try to lose weight as fast as I could and I was under eating and exercising like crazy
I'm very glad for finding your video and listening to your experience. I feel I'm trapped in the same cycle of wanting to live a "healthy" life. I had an experience of losing my period several years ago due to ED & dieting culture. I was able to get it back by reducing stress (stop workouts) + eating more. However, I returned to the same point again, Now, didn't have my period for 4 months, all started when my physician told my that I have a low bond density & percentage keep increasing, and recommended to increase my weight specially muscle mass, so I decide to have a coach and start to exercise again + counting macros. I was able to increase my muscle mass little but my fat dropped. I have fear always from fat & being "fat" and putting on weight would make me look bad. I always wanted to be in a same size. I start to workout out 5 days, and then 4, and now 3 as I felt that reducing the days might help to get my period back + I walk everyday on the treadmill for 3mils. I know that what I'm doing is not right for me, but I'm really afraid of stop exercising again. I told myself that doing workout 3 days in the week with walking will get my period back. With missing my period again, I feel my body is really sensitive to high intensity workout. I enjoy moving my body and feeling strong & in the same time I want to get my period back. I just keep thinking about how I harmed my body again unintentionally.
Thank you so much for this video Dani - I feel totally seen! I've been told recently that I have HA but I am in no way skinny at all. I'm currently battling with trying to rest and eat more calories, but also looking around at other women who are slimmer than me and toned because they workout hard everyday yet still have their periods!! Such a hard thing to accept when you just want to look the same way but your body won't allow it. It was such a relief to hear your story and gave me so much comfort to know I'm not alone! Thank you :)
I'm exactly like you, I never liked running. Me it was the weightlifting at 100% , it's really my obsession and I lost my period since 4years now... Omggg exactly!! When we told me to stop training and eat more I was like " omg I will cry everyday"
This resonated so much, I started sobbing towards the end when you say: "I couldn't undo quickly what I thought the world wanted from me." It runs DEEP! I am choosing to get my period back (and I am terrified). Thank you so very much, and I look forward to binging the rest of your videos :)
YESSSS GIRL! I was NEVER into cardio/endurance training. Ever. My HA started from anorexia, then continued for 12 whole years. So grateful for recovery!
Thank you!!
So relatable! Letting go of exercise (yoga/ walking ) is so hard. Exercise makes me feel good and it gives me a sense of accomplishment every day. I really need constant inspirations on my recovery journey. Thank you for sharing :)
Thank you for your comment and love Cathy! We get each other!
WOW. Thank you so much for sharing your story Dani. Like you, I was never really active as a kid. It was during quarantine that I noticed my body changing and gaining weight. I started intermittent fasting, then weight lifting like every other day while eating barely up to 1000 calories a day. Like you, it was really the weight lifting that made me lose my period. I started trying to recover in March and I got two periods, but I lost it again because I started working a high intensity job this summer. I just got it back again and I’m committed to keeping it. My body composition is changing and I’m not as muscular as before, which has been hard to deal with. Like you, I have some really bad body image days. But I’m glad I’m not alone! ❤
I am so glad that this resonated with you!!! Thank you :)
Thank you so much for this I really needed this validation in my journey to get my period back xx
You're so welcome! I would love to hear updates on you!
Hi Dani, I've never resonated with a video as much as this one has... I am EXACTLY like how you described yourself in the past and your message is so empowering and has made me realise why not having my period is so dangerous... I'm just nervous about going 'cold turkey', but I'm very grateful to have found your little space in the internet and I'll keep going with my recovery :D
Hey Marie - THANK YOU SO MUCH. I am glad you resonated :) I'm a lot more active on the podcast and Instagram if you're every out that way but am trying to be more active on UA-cam! Can't wait to see you around!
wow! you deserve sooo many more subscribers, you speak so eloquently and your little edits are so cute! thank you for sharing your story. as someone who is still a teenager and is currently suffering from HA and struggling to go all in, it's so reassuring to hear that getting your period back is possible. i feel like most HAers are women between the ages of 20-40 so it's been hard for me to relate to their pregnancy motivations to recover because that's definitely not my main focus rn being so young. a lot of them justify the weight gain because they hope to become pregnant in the foreseeable future. for me, that's not the case which makes it so much harder for me to just commit to recovery. it's truly a mental battle and you articulated exactly how i feel right now in this video, so thank you:)
Erin thank you so much for those kind words :) I only just started so that's why my subs are so low :) but hopefully they will build up! I'm excited!
Hi Dani! I just found your channel and have been going through your videos. I am so relieved to know that I am not alone. Last year, I was diagnosed with IIH and I was told to lose some weight to improve my symptoms. I had been sedentary all my life but had become overweight during the pandemic. I quickly grew very fond of HIIT and weight training. I found a community at my gym and I loved feeling stronger. I was proud of myself for becoming disciplined and forming a routine, until I began to have irregular periods last year. It's been 4 months since my last period now, and I feel like something is not right. My obgyn assures me that my labs are normal, and recommends anti-inflammatory diet and supplements to induce my period but I've had no luck. It was only in the past dew days where I became conscious of how much of an effort and how much energy weight training takes from me. Although I enjoy the rush and adrenaline it provides me with, I also feel like I am pushing my body beyond its limits day after day. It is such a bummer that I found a hobby and community which I love and that I have to cut back on it to restore my reproductive health. I feel so hopeless. All I've aimed for in the past few years was to lose weight, and now I feel so defeated, but I am determined to improve my health because I want to start a family someday. I am 25 and I am so glad I found your channel and this community.
thank you sooo much for sharing your thoughts here. You're definitely not alone. I think you're on the right track and were so happy to have you here in our community :)
Good luck dani 👏🏻
Thank you!!
This was awesome Dani! I had anorexia and lost my period but when I became a healthy weight my period didn't come back because I was exercising a lot and eating low fat/low cal. And I was like what now? I have gained the weight and as you said I didn't feel worthy of resting/eating more at a healthy BMI. I am now a Food Freedom Coach and I hear so often 'I am not sick enough, thin enough, ill enough...' to recover. We all deserve to be happy and healthy and that takes trust, trusting our bodies and working with them. They know what they need.
So many people will benefit from hearing your story. Grateful for you xx
That 'I don't deserve to recover' part seems to be one of the most prominent issues!
Thank you for sharing your story! I'm currently struggling to get my period back as I have been missing it for almost 5 months. Our background stories sound similar, I wasn't that active as a kid, but about 6-7 months ago I took up exercising, specifically weightlifting and tried to eat 'cleaner' which to me was just eating more of fruits and vegetables and less of heavily processed/junk foods. The first month, everything was going fine, but I started getting really consistent towards the end of August (weightlifting 5x a week and having active rest days where I'd walk about 3-6 miles). I was also eating less but never intentionally restricting food. At first I was a bit relieved about not having a period, but earlier this month I was talking to a friend about how I hadn't gotten it for 4 months, and she brought up how I could have hypothalamic amenorrhea. I didn't believe it at first and always associated something like that to occur in people much thinner than I was. Doctor told me it was normal to miss my period which was expected, but at that point I just decided to take matters into my own hands. Recovery is so hard and I couldn't fathom just going all in and "losing my progress", but I'm trying to get there slowly. It's a process of unlearning that mentality, so glad I found your video.
Letting go of exercise is so hard for me, I think that I used it as a way to have more control in my life, and it's been difficult accepting that the only way to truly recover is by doing the complete opposite, but I am getting there❤️❤️
I'm glad that my story resonates with you and thank you for sharing yours with me. You are definitely on track and worthy of being at what ever weight and level of activity works best for your body.
You have to sacrifice some things u love the most, this is the first & same thing my brother told me when i was crying thinking about what shall i choose -periods or exercising and looking a certain way
Yeah, life just isn't as simple as we have been lead to believe - exercise and be healthy. There is a balance and right now, a move backwards is necessary to move forwards.
I wonder if you viewed your lack of period as an indicator of "success," in that your body was creating an affirmative response to all the hard work you were putting in to change your body, as you said. I've used various indicators to affirm confidence that I'm doing enough to be thin, many of which indicators are totally trivial and even unhealthy at times. And all the affirmations I sought to re-affirm that I was thin "enough" were just based in a true desire to feel worthy
Natalie I 100% did this. I absolutely felt like an athlete and that it meant I was working "hard enough."
I can relate so much.. I had a consistent Prd before I found CrossFit which was during my sophomore year of Highschool. During CrossFit I realized that it was slowly disappearing and soon not at all. Then I decided to just do Olympic weightlifting (still do) and it never showed. Im kinda lean but as a 63&59kg lifter I wouldn’t think that being the weight I was affecting my Prd. I do work and it’s a physical job. Train quiet hard. And go to school... My goal isn’t to have babies anytime soon so In my mind I wasn’t worried about getting my Prd. Again I felt that same feeling of “this is cool/nice to not have a Prd” ahha I thought I was “nice” because you didn’t have to deal w/ the cramps or just Prd stuff that normal cycles came w/. I did find myself at times wonder what I had... if it was ok? If it would hinder my body in ways in the long wrong. During COVID I didn’t lift weight for 5 weeks. Literally a bar and I was eating more than normal (I’m team WAG btw ahah) and interesting enough I didn’t get my PRd. Maybe I’m in the loooowew part of HV. I know one day if so pull back. It’ll come say hello again.
Thanks for sharing your story❣️
You're welcome! And thank you for sharing your story. I do think you'll get your period back soon. 5 weeks isn't enough to get your period back a lot of the time, it took me a lot more than 5 weeks. That's really only one cycle. So you'd be expecting your period to just awaken after 1 week off...because you do need a whole cycle in a relaxed state, does that make sense?!
Dani Sheriff True..a True!
I am in the same boat as you in the "not lean"... And it's difficult... I don't want to gain weight because I would ended up being overweight... And i don't care about the looks... I care because I am insulin resistant since I am 5 years old... I don't feel like I should do it... But my freaking endometrium is atrophied and my ovaries have no stimulus...
This is me right now. I've only been diagnosed recently and it bums me out recovery wise now because I'm at the last leg of my weightloss journey (I was much more overweight prior) and obviously eating much more in order to get my period back :(
Hazel - you've been diagnosed with...HA? WOW I can really really imagine how frustrated you must feel - you've worked SO hard and were so proud now..this! I totally get it. But it's not so black and white, a lot of good things have come out of your WL journey and now its just time to dial in the other consequences that come with it. Remember, all actions have an opposite or equal reaction!
@@DaniSheriff Yes. I knew I had secondary amenorrhea for a long time but being diagnosed HA explained so many thing I thought was just happening to me. Thank you so much for sharing. Yeah it is quite frustrating, I caught myself slipping back into old ways or curbing my appetite or overexercising a couple of times. I still feel much more comfortable in my body right now after WL. Gues this will just be another challenge for me.
@@hazel6094 Yeah - I feel that. I had to gain weight back but I feel very comfortable in my body again. It just takes time.
@@DaniSheriff SO relatable!
for me, i think it feels cool to not have a period because 1. you don’t have to worry about the hassles a period can cause like bleeding through your pants, swimming etc. 2. it can feed into many peoples habit to identity with their eating disorder. “if i don’t have my period, my body may still really be that thin” (which can be hard to tell when you have body dysmorphia), and other thought like that. i’m sure there are many other reasons or ideas but that seems to be what holds me back from starting the recovery process (mainly the second).
Hey Eva! Many of us have been there - feeling like not having a period is a nice thing because it's less messy. But, once you really start to dive into the importance of your period, that one reason really doesn't measure up to the benefits of having a healthy period! If you're struggling with making the decision to recover, I hope that you get there!!
@@DaniSheriff thanks for replying! i definitely agree that the benefits of having a period completely outweigh the insignificant and small conveniences that come along with not having it. I am currently trying to get mine back while building a better relationship with food and exercise, which is how I discovered your podcast, and then UA-cam channel. I’m thankful for creators like you and will continue to tune in to your content because it’s been super helpful so far! 😊
@@evagomez3048 aw thank you Eva! I'm so grateful to you for saying that and I hope to keep chatting with you through this journey!!! I hope you get your period back really soon, let me know when you do!
I may be the 1 case you're referring to lol Seeing a neurologist next month for a pituitary adenoma.
Why haven't I come across your video before? 😮 I have lost my period because of sickness, but its been away for four years. Anyway, I started to train crossfit for two years ago. My favorite part.... Weightlifting. Nothing beats a E90s with snatch 😆 Okey, going to go back to listening to your video now, thank you for sharing!👍🏻 I've been trying, but I haven't even told my friends.😐
Welcome to my channel! I love weightlifting too so I totally get it, it's hard!
I lost 40 pounds but I also lost my period bc I been eating 1,000-1200 and I wanna recover but I’m scared I’ll gain it back
I understand it's scary! I would recommend working with a professional who can do lab work and proper testing to help get you back on track without having to rely only on the advice to eat heaps of junk food :)
Is 2000 calories enough also I’v been having discharge!!! So I just wanna make sure I’m on the right track
Usually more is needed but it can depend on more of your individual factors, of which I don't know!
Well I really want to become pregnant very soon... Is it however too much to go for light walking under 10K steps daily? It destresses me very much and it clears my mind :(
Hi Ioanna I'll be answering this question on an upcoming March 15th episode
@@DaniSheriff Wonderful, the date has been saved!!!
how much time it tookto get your period back?
8-9 months!
I hope I can be as strong as you and do that I so scared to gain the weight I was 190 to 145 don’t want to go to the 190 again
I TOTALLY understand. It's a completely different experience to going "back to how you were before" - I'd LOVE to work with you if you ever need support going through it!! xx
@@DaniSheriff well I going to try and get my blood test and hormone again cause I I didn’t test my hormone level or metabolize also I been taking adrenal support
@@DaniSheriff I like working out but I know I should try less intense workout, weight training
@@DaniSheriff tmi but I had a clear discharge does that mean it going to come soon also I been feeling a lot better not doing so much cardio and more strength training and eat a lot more then before listening to my body and eating when it tells me too
@@JNM9397 Hey Monica - I didn't see your last comments, SORRY! I'm glad you reduced the cardio that will for sure help. Seeing clear discharge is a VERY positive sign. It doesn't necessarily mean that you'll see a period tomorrow but it means that things are kicking back on and your body is preparing to try and ovulate!
u made me laugh at 13:13 😆
You are way more beautiful than all the skinny girls I know 😘
Aww haha thank you!
how much weight did you have to gan
I gained about 9kgs.
Over weight can also make u lost your period too tho...
Hey Sasi - totally, but this story is about Hypothalamic Amenorrhea which is specific to energy deficit related amenorrhea.