Online Medications

Learn About Amenorrhea

What is amenorrhea?

Amenorrhea is a menstrual condition characterized by absent menstrual periods for more than three monthly menstrual cycles. Amenorrhea may be classified as primary or secondary.

• primary amenorrhea - from the beginning and usually lifelong; menstruation never begins at puberty.

• secondary amenorrhea - due to some physical cause and usually of later onset; a condition in which menstrual periods which were at one time normal and regular become increasing abnormal and irregular or absent.

What causes amenorrhea?

There are several possible causes of amenorrhea, including the following:

• pregnancy
  Women no longer ovulate when they are pregnant, thus menstruation ceases temporarily.

• ovulation abnormality
  Ovulation abnormalities are usually the cause of very irregular or frequently missed menstrual periods.

• birth defect, anatomical abnormality, or other medical condition
  If a young woman has not started to menstruate by the age of 16, a birth defect, anatomical abnormality, or other medical condition may be suspected.

• eating disorder
  Women with anorexia nervosa (or simply anorexia) and/or bulimia nervosa (or simply bulimia) often experience amenorrhea as a result of maintaining a body weight that would be too low to sustain a pregnancy. As a result, as a form of protection for the body, the reproductive system “shuts down” because it is severely malnourished.

• overexercise or strenuous exercise
  Many young women athletes in training experience absent menstrual cycles due to low body fat content.

• thyroid disorder
  In many cases, an underactive thyroid gland (a condition called hypothyroidism in which the thyroid gland is producing insufficient amounts of the thyroid hormone) or an overactive thyroid gland (a condition called hyperthyroidism in which the thyroid gland secretes too much thyroid hormone - resulting in too much thyroid hormone in the bloodstream and overactivity of the body’s metabolism) is responsible for the absent menstrual cycles.

• obesity
  Women who are obese often experience amenorrhea as a result of excess fat cells interfering with the process of ovulation.