Stress, anxiety, or worry; however, you choose to refer to it, can devastate your menstrual cycle. Both men and women experience stress in their everyday lives. But for women, it can be way more unhealthy to stress during their periods because stress can alter their menstruation cycle.
Definition of stress.
Stress is the body’s psychological and physiological reaction to changes in its environment. Stress causes the body to adjust and respond effectively. If you stress at your daily job, experts refer to it as occupational stress, and when you feel strain and pressure, physiological stress.
Stress and Menstruation
A normal menstruation cycle is a sign of excellent general health of the body. Health experts have proven that a little stress can be useful for the human body; it boosts immunity, enhances creativity, brainpower, increases strength, and is a good motivation source.
In as much as stress in small quantities may have a positive impact on the body, too much worry may be devastating to the general body health. Excessive stressing during your periods can result in an irregular menstruation cycle and irregular menstruation can lead to stress, and in the worst-case scenario, trauma.
Even though we currently live in a stressful world especially due to COVID 19, which has stimulated worldwide economic stress, everyone should try to live a stress-free life. Everyone should take care of their mental and physical health early before it escalates into stress and its adverse effects.
How stress affects menstruation
1. Delayed ovulation
Too much stress can mess up your menstrual cycle to the point of experiencing delayed ovulation and early ovulation during some months. Delayed ovulation can be a pain in the arse. Stress leads to delayed ovulation by stopping the sufficient secretion of ovulation hormones like the luteinizing hormone and estrogen. To avoid delayed ovulation, you should try and prevent stress on days leading to your period.
2. Worse PMS symptoms
Women who stress during their periods are likely to experience worse PMS symptoms than stress-free women. High doses of stress and anxiety can lead to heavy bleeding, which is an awful experience. Pain and cramps are other PMS symptoms that are often caused by stress and anxiety. Health experts advise menstruating women to avoid stress if they want lighter PMS symptoms. If you see that your PMS symptoms increasing, you should try and reduce anxiety and stress levels.
3. Longer cycles
Longer menstruation cycles are another adverse effect of stress, anxiety, and worry during menstruation. Health experts attribute longer menstruation cycles to how stress negatively affects ovulation hormones. No one loves an extended period.
Note that when you experiences a longer menstrual cycle, you're likely going to have delayed menstruation during your next period. This leads to confusion and leaves you speculating the onset of your next period.
4. No ovulation
Another worst-case scenario is that stress and anxiety can lead to no ovulation during menstruation. Even though you will continue to menstruate, you might not be ovulating. This is worse especially if you who want to have kids.
5. Missed periods
Excess stress and anxiety don’t only stop at delayed, early, or extended periods. In some cases, you are likely to miss your periods altogether. Missing your periods is scary and frightening which can lead to even more stress and anxiety. Keep your mental, emotional, and physical health in check to avoid this.
Bottom line
Even though it might sound impossible to eliminate stress from your daily life, the best thing we can do as captains of our human experience is to engineer ourselves, reduce stress, anxiety, and worry levels to the lowest level. And if you want to have a regular menstruation cycle and prevent the effects of stress on menstruation, cutting out or avoid stressors. Think positive thoughts and always look on the brighter side of life. If the effects of stress on your periods become adverse, consult your doctor as soon as possible.