368. From 4 Years Without a Period to Pregnancy in 93 Days | Recovery Story w/ Caroline
The Hypothalamic Amenorrhea PodcastShow Notes
After years of searching for answers, seeing multiple specialists, undergoing extensive testing, and being told she was "healthy," Caroline still didn't have a period. Like many women with Hypothalamic Amenorrhea (HA), she spent years believing she was doing everything right. She exercised regularly, ate what she thought was a healthy diet, maintained a lean body, and followed many of the wellness trends praised by society. But underneath it all were years of intermittent fasting, under-fueling, chronic stress, and high physical output.
In this episode, Caroline shares how she went from: ✔️ No period for over 4 years ✔️ Multiple doctor visits, lab tests, MRIs, and specialist referrals ✔️ Being told everything looked "normal" ✔️ Training for a triathlon while trying to conceive ✔️ Struggling with food rules and exercise habits To: ✔️ Recovering ovulation in just 93 days ✔️ Restoring her menstrual cycle naturally ✔️ Conceiving on her second ovulation ✔️ Being 21 weeks pregnant at the time of recording We also discuss the emotional side of HA recovery, navigating weight gain, letting go of exercise, learning to ask for help, and why investing in support can dramatically change your recovery journey. If you've been told your labs are normal, you've been trying to recover on your own, or you're wondering if Hypothalamic Amenorrhea could be the missing piece, this episode is for you.
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More from The Hypothalamic Amenorrhea Podcast
In this episode we answer listener questions that range from: - I used to menstruate at X weight, why not now? - Cycling going backward when REDUCING coffee, is this possible?! - How does BC affect lab work & more - and we address a listener comment from a past episode, explaining that honestly, having HA probably isn’t very feminist either.
If you’ve ever thought, “I’ll do what it takes to get my period back…I just really don’t want to gain THAT much weight,” you’re going to relate to Ali. Ali spent years in and out of recovery, sometimes bleeding, sometimes not, but never really letting go of the food control or trusting her body. And when she finally decided she wanted to become a mom, she had to face the thing she’d been afraid of since childhood...allowing her body to change without knowing exactly where it would land. We talk about her years of “quasi-recovery,” trying to find a way to recover while staying thin, the very real fear of weight gain, and what changed when she finally said, essentially, screw it, I’m doing this. Once Ali went all-in, she got her first period in about 50 days, ovulated, and eventually got pregnant on her third ovulation. If you’re currently trying to figure out how to recover without having to fully surrender to recovery…this episode is for you.
Mady thought she’d go all-in on HA recovery, get her period back in 3 months and move on with her life. Instead, recovery took about a year and forced her to completely rethink health, her identity as the “healthy girl,” weight gain and her need for control. Ironically, it wasn’t until she stopped making recovery the center of her life and started actually LIVING again that her period finally came back.
You've lost your period, you know you're not pregnant... the good news is it's probably just something called hypothalamic amenorrhea. Easy to understand and simple to resolve but surprisingly difficult to actually execute. In this episode we walk you through why you should be relieved that it's not something else like polycystic ovaries, premature ovarian insufficiency or early menopause and how to approach it!
You've gained weight, you've been eating more food consistently, you've even reduced or stopped working out. This isn't making SENSE! I get it and as a coach who works with many women with amenorrhea all of the time, this isn't an uncommon concern.