What Are the Possible Reasons for a Missed Menstrual Cycle?
A healthy female will have regular menstruation every month, which can indicate the health status of a person's body. Therefore, menstrual abnormalities should be promptly identified and treated. If a female is pregnant, menstruation will not occur. There are many other reasons for menstruation not to occur. Females should avoid exhaustion, keep warm during menstruation, avoid drinking alcohol, and refrain from eating cold foods. What are the reasons for menstruation not to occur? Let's take a look.
Drug Side Effects Leading to Absent Menstruation
Drugs can affect a woman's endocrine system. For example, taking contraceptives, weight loss drugs, and abortion drugs can lead to endocrine disorders, which in turn affect menstruation and cause it to stop.
1. Contraceptives
The main ingredients of contraceptives are progesterone and estrogen. By taking contraceptives, ovulation is suppressed, thereby interfering with the combination of eggs and sperm to achieve contraception. However, taking too many contraceptives can affect the ovary's secretion of estrogen, resulting in abnormal growth of the endometrium and a thin lining, leading to reduced menstrual flow or amenorrhea.
2. Weight Loss Drugs
For example, hormone-based weight loss drugs generally contain thyroid hormones. Improper use of weight loss drugs can easily lead to menstrual disorders, menstrual irregularities, or amenorrhea, affecting normal menstruation and potentially leading to infertility in severe cases.
3. Abortion Drugs
Medical abortion generally involves the use of receptor-level anti-progestin drugs such as mifepristone and misoprostol. These drugs can inhibit central dopamine receptors, reducing the amount of hypothalamic releasing factor entering the anterior pituitary, leading to decreased secretion of gonadotropic and corticotropic hormones from the anterior pituitary, resulting in amenorrhea and delayed ovulation. Abortion drugs can damage the endometrium and require a period of repair. Generally, menstruation will resume around one month after medical abortion, but it may also be absent for 40-50 days.
Surgery Leading to Absent Menstruation
Surgery can affect menstruation. For example, uterine cavity surgery can cause cervical adhesions, leading to menstrual blood stagnation in the uterus and symptoms of absent menstruation and delayed menstruation.
1. Abortion Surgery
Abortion surgery generally includes vacuum aspiration and curettage. Improper curettage can easily damage the cervix or the basal membrane of the endometrium, causing adhesions within the cervix or partial adhesions of the uterine wall, leading to amenorrhea.
2. Ovarian Cyst Surgery
After ovarian cyst surgery, the uterus and ovaries require a period of recovery. Some women resume menstruation one month after surgery.
Pregnancy Leading to Absent Menstruation
If a woman has sexual activity and menstruation is delayed for 7 days, she can use a pregnancy test kit to test her urine. If the result is positive, it indicates pregnancy; if negative, it indicates no pregnancy. The best method for detecting pregnancy is to undergo a B-ultrasound examination at a hospital.
Other Factors Leading to Absent Menstruation
Factors such as excessive stress, high work and life pressure, changes in lifestyle, irregular sleep-wake cycles, dietary changes, and environmental changes can all affect endocrine function, potentially leading to absent menstruation and delayed menstruation.