Signs of Irregular Periods

Signs of having irregular periods are different for each woman. Some women may never have had a "regular" menstrual cycle, and have always had irregular periods. Many times experiencing irregular periods means than nothing drastic is wrong. Usually it just means the woman is going through a stressful time and she is not getting enough sleep. Sometimes having irregular periods is a sign of something more serious, such as being pregnant, being anemic, or having an illness that interrupted her normal cycle. And sometimes still a woman may be seriously ill, such as having a disease.

What is Regular?

• There are as many reasons for women to have irregular periods as there are women living on our planet Earth. Each woman is different and each woman has a different menstrual cycle. What is determined as "a normal cycle" is for a woman to have a cycle of between 24 to 29 days when she has her period. What also is considered as being normal is for a woman to have a very heavy period, or for some women still to have two or three periods a month. The definition covers a wide range.

What is Irregular?

• An irregular period is when a woman misses her period for two or three cycles in one year for unexplained reasons. When a woman has an absence of a period until she is 16 years old, and for at least one year, this is called amenorrhea. She may have a headache, vision changes, excessive hair growth and milky nipple discharge due to having an absence of menstruation. Many women experience having irregular periods every year due to outside influences, and other daily factors.

Adrenal Glands

• Every woman has her individual menstrual cycle. Many reasons can interrupt a woman's regular cycle. Missed or irregular periods can be caused by stress and tension in a woman's life. A woman can be pregnant and won't have her period. A hormonal imbalance will cause a teenager and a woman's hormones to shift. When a woman is under stress, such as moving or job-related stress, her adrenal glands are designed to secrete the hormone cortisol. Cortisol has an impact on the sex hormones such as estrogen and progesterone. Adrenal fatigue can set in due to stress and then a woman will have an irregular or missed period.

Signs of Irregular Periods

• The signs of experiencing an irregular period can be marked with spotting, bloating, missed periods, heavy periods, and sometimes not having a period for several months. Many times a woman will become stressed out, thus shutting down her adrenal glands and causing a period to not happen. A woman may also think she is pregnant when she has missed several periods or that she has been thrown into perimenopause or menopause itself. For a woman to be experiencing menopause, she must not have a period for at least one year. But during perimenopause she may experience irregular periods.

Reasons For Irregular Periods

• There are hundreds of reasons why a woman may have irregular periods. Some of the reasons are: Excessive alcohol usage can shut down the menstrual cycle. An overload of caffeine can cause a woman to experience irregular, spotty, and sometimes very heavy periods. Stress plays a large role in a woman's life and can cause a woman to have irregular periods or no period at all. Illness such as the flu or even bronchitis can cause a woman to have a delayed period. Eating disorders including anorexia can cause a woman to not have a period due to a decrease in body fat, thus decreasing estrogen. A woman who exercises more than three hours a day can also experience amenorrhea, or the absence of a period. During breast-feeding a woman may not have a period. Certain medications can delay a woman's period also. Gaining too much weight can also be a factor.

Other Factors

• When a woman is going through a certain disease, such as cancer, and she is receiving chemotherapy her period may stop due to the stress on her body and the body trying to fight the disease. Having certain medical conditions will make a woman bleed heavily during her period and she may experience other times of bleeding due to cysts, fibroid tumors, polyps and endometriosis. Taking certain prescription drugs can cause a woman's period to become irregular also.

Prevention/Solution

• A woman's period will at times become irregular during her lifetime. Sporadic episodes of poor diet, high stress, illness and too much exercise will throw off her hormones and adrenal glands and cause an irregular period. Many times when a woman's life settles back into place she will once again return to normal menstruation. When that does not happen, it is time to see a health care professional for a complete physical exam and a pelvic exam. Regular moderate exercise, eating healthy foods, and getting plenty of sleep will do a woman's body wonders to get her out of the irregular period zone.