Periods M.I.A. Since Quitting?
 

Anyone have personal experience or medical knowledge about the effect of quitting on menstruation?

I had one normal period after quitting, but since then I've missed my last two and my hormones feel entirely out of whack. (I feel like I'm PMSing every two or three weeks, but I never actually have a period.)

I'm old enough that, if I did enough damage to my system with years of smoking and drinking, I suppose this could theoretically be the beginnings of a super early perimenopause, but I'm hoping to hear that it's a common side-effect of cleaning up one's act.

(I've also been, for unrelated reasons, on a heavy dose of antibiotics for a month, but it looks like antibiotics are not the culprit here.)

So, short-hand, (a) has this happened to you?, and (b) if so, how long before your body got back on track?

Thanks.

If I drank... I didn't menstruate... took me about 3 months to get back to normal... HTH

About four years for me.

But I did not eat correctly, was very underweight, drank too much.

When I went on the contraceptive pill that made them more regular.

I wish you the best
xx

I had no issues when I was drinking or when I stopped drinking. No change and like clockwork.

I don't think its a common side effect. At least not in my case. May I ask your age?

I can relate. 7.5 months sober.When drinking always every 28 days clockwork. Since quitting I've just missed for the third time. I can't NOT see any connection but my doc says it's not usually a side effect. I'm also wondering if it's menopause but only 39. I'm sorry you're going through this but selfishly I'm glad it's not just me as thought I was going mad :)

KMT: 35. . . if it's perimenopause I'm going to be really depressed. :(

Ready: Lol. Company is comforting.

Slightly off thread-I always thought you were male Zee-sorry!

I'm always surprised on SR when I realize those I thought were men are women and vice versa :)

Hi Allie, mine actually became more regular after I quit. I would think 35 is way too young for peri menopause, unless your mom went through it at a very early age? No chance you could be pregnant??

Ladybug: only if you believe in immaculate conception and/or human parthenogenesis. :)

No, my mom hit it a bit late, actually. But she and I are not very similar physically.

Have you seen your doc Allie? I'm going to give it a few more weeks and go back to mine. think POS can have similar effects but usually other symptoms too. stress, weight loss/gain etc can cause it but none of those for me. Like you,it's only happened since quitting so I'm convinced it's related

Lol :) Could just be a stage you are going through? I am 41 now, but when I was in my mid-30's I skipped periods all the time. Sometimes had to have my Dr give me something to start them up?

I'll just have to see what happens, I guess.

I was so hoping 50 women would chime in and say "it happened to me too! it's totally not early perimenopause!" :)

The end of periods would be nice if I wasn't still getting periodically bloated, teary, and crampy. Ah, well, there'll be the saving on tampons and Motrin, I guess.

I started peri menopause in my 30's and entered menopause completely at 45.... Doctor said I was very young for all that but couldn't ever really explain why. I discovered the peri menopause when he did a hormone work up due to irregular periods, etc... I wasn't really drinking a lot back then, though I was under a lot of emotional stress...

It could also be an ovarian cyst. You should get yourself check by a gynecologist :)

Thanks. I'll look into that if things don't change in a couple months. Like Ready, I was fairly regular when drinking, so I suspect a connection of some kind, I just don't have anything other than hope and guesswork to base that connection on.

I feel like most of the medical info out there is about the effect of drinking (a) on men, and (b) on a daily, rather than periodic binge, basis.

That makes it harder to guess what is just the body healing itself in the normal way and what is a possible health issue.

A male with chihuahuas' haha :lmao

We have lots of big manly men here with tiny dogs, I laugh every time I see one walking or carrying his dog. Meanwhile, my two dogs weigh a total of 250 pounds.

As for the periods, I wish drinking would have stopped mine but no such luck. Not drinking doesn't seem to stop it either, dang :gaah

Why not get to a GYN and get checked out and be brutally honest with the doc?

I never experienced what you are experiencing...particularly at your age (yes, I got sober then for a short period of time, but all was okay back then and quite on time).

At 50, it took about 3 months to get "normal" and I guess my body still thinks it's much younger than it is....at 52 (2 years sober plus 2 months) I am more "normal" than ever and I can tolerate the pain (I used to numb it with alcohol and drugs and had serious PMS/PMDD).

Please see a medical professional!

I haven't experienced what you're describing. Mine is regular. It's no different than before really, except that the blood is a brighter red and I can actually feel the cramps. Lol.