When do gymnasts get their period

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How exercise can shut down women's periods — with dire health consequences. Share this story Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share All sharing options Share All sharing options for: How exercise can shut down women's periods — with dire health consequences.

Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Gymnasts are among the higher risk groups of "female athlete triad" syndrome. Fu Yuanhui at the Rio Games. In red, the three related components of the female athlete triad: Eating too little affects menstrual status, and in turn, calorie availability and menstrual status influence bone health.

In green, optimal health is indicated by adequate energy availability, regular periods eumenorrhea , and good bone health. British Journal of Sports Medicine In evolutionary terms, you could think about it like this: The female body shuts down its reproductive capacity to protect from becoming pregnant, since it barely has enough energy to carry out its own basic functions. The longer-term consequences of the triad can be serious Because exercise-induced amenorrhea messes with the production of reproductive hormones, athletes with the condition tend to be estrogen-deficient.

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For more newsletters, check out our newsletters page. This is normal. The first year is expected to be irregular, but after that the cycle should start to regulate to every 21 to 35 days.

I lost my period again around 14 years old as training intensified 4 hours a day, 5 days a week PLUS my own conditioning at home on the weekends. Looking back, this was certainly due to under fueling and what would be considered secondary amenorrhea due to inadequate energy availability. I barley ate breakfast, ate like a bird at lunch, had no pre-workout or intraworkout nutrition, and picked at dinner which only got worse when the eating issues intensified around But then, the situation got complicated.

My body weight stabilized, and I retired from gymnastics during Senior year of high school. The diagnostic criteria for PCOS includes having two of the three following symptoms: Oligomenorrhea, Hyperandrogenism, and Polycystic ovaries.

At the time of my PCOS diagnosis, I had oligomenorrhea infrequent periods and mildly elevated testosterone. Yes, women have both estrogen and testosterone in their bodies. I was still really struggling with eating disorder thoughts and behaviors which caused a lot of stress. The menstrual cycle is not only closely related to nutrition status but also psychological stress.

I had a bad reaction to the birth control and stopped taking it. I did end up getting my period once I started eating normally again and started therapy for the first time since being diagnosed with an eating disorder at This is a huge part of why I am so passionate about allfoodsfit, because crazy dieting did nothing but make my life miserable. More on that in another post.

But, what happens to the body during adolescence can have an impact on future fertility and other aspects of health like bone mineralization. This is untrue and can be remedied with adequate food, not birth control. Not true. Birth control does nothing to regulate the menstrual cycle, period. Birth control is simply a band-aid.

Especially when due to inadequate energy availability. The first and foremost is poor bone mineralization; the body will likely not have adequate estrogen to keep the process of bone formation and breakdown in balance. The first 14 days are called the follicular phase, when the egg is building up. Now this is the time when female athletes have to be particularly careful, since they are at a higher risk of getting tissue injuries, including tears of the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee.

The next 14 days, called the luteal phase, is when the uterus is prepared to accept the fertilised egg. This time is not as great for athletic performance, since the body produces higher levels of oestrogen. And in case an athlete has to participate in a sporting event, she must load up on carbs. In a nutshell, this is a tough time for female athletes!

In some extreme cases, athletes lose the ability to get their periods—this condition is called amenorrhea. In such cases, the brain sends the wrong signal to the uterus and that leads to scanty or no periods at all.

Also, read: Meet Smita Biswas who lives, breathes, and does kilometre walkathons in saris.