The Unfiltered Health Podcast
The Unfiltered Health Podcast delivers real, authentic conversations about health, wellness, and longevity. We break down complex health topics, sharing evidence-based insights, practical advice, and personal experiences. Our mission is to educate, inspire, and build a supportive community committed to living well and thriving together—no filters, just the truth about what it takes to achieve lasting health.
The Unfiltered Health Podcast
82 - Losing Your Period and How To Get It Back
Losing your menstrual cycle is a topic that's rarely addressed openly, yet it's a reality many women face, including us. Steph and I share our personal journeys of losing our periods due to intense dieting and physical competition, and how we managed to regain them. We'll guide you through the significant effects of rapid weight loss, insufficient fat intake, and the crucial role of a balanced diet in maintaining your hormonal balance. With practical tips on managing stress and the importance of supplements like magnesium and B vitamins, this episode aims to offer support and reassurance to those navigating similar challenges.
We're not shying away from the tough conversations about women's health, especially how hormonal contraceptives like the pill can affect our bodies. From altering hormonal balance to depleting essential nutrients, these medications come with their own set of challenges. We stress the importance of being your own health investigator and exploring multiple health options, whether it's coming off the pill or dealing with broader health issues. Discover why finding an empathetic healthcare professional is key and how open dialogue and better education can empower you to take control of your well-being. Join us in breaking the taboos and choosing compassionate care that genuinely prioritizes your health.
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Welcome to episode 82 of the Unfiltered Health Podcast Today. Well, actually, steph and I are recording some short and sweet episodes, so the next few episodes that we head into will be a little bit sweeter, a little bit shorter, but I think we're just going to still keep the same energy, still keep the fun facts, spitting truths, as we always do, and, yeah, so the next few episodes that you listen to are pre-recorded and I guess, keeping us into the Christmas silly season, as we will be having some downtime, but these episodes will be packed with juicy stuff. So today's episode is on losing your period and how to get it back.
Speaker 1:Periods always are a hot topic. They're also really still, I feel like in research there's not enough information for women, because most women aren't misrepresented. In research, most of the data is collected on our male counterparts, so it is a little bit. There's just things missing and we do know this in research, that women are misrepresented. So, like talking about this today we're going to be talking about in a general sense, we're going to be sharing some information. Maybe that would be more personal, so you can kind of maybe relate more to us as well. But, yeah, the information that we shared today is about losing your period how to get it back. Personally, I have lost my period when I was competing in bikini model competitions 2018, I lost my period within the first month of dieting.
Speaker 2:Really Wow. Okay, I did not know that. I knew you had mentioned it before, but I had. I was under the assumption it was after your comp, not during Wow.
Speaker 1:Okay, instant. I lost about three kilos in the first month, which is not like crazy, but I guess, for the size of person that I was already not necessarily being super big, yes, and not being super small. My body just was like what the fuck's going on already, anyway, but I was eating really good food. I was having steak, I was having chicken, I was having salmon, I was eating a lot of veggies, I was having carbohydrates, I was having four eggs a day. So like my quality of food was amazing. There just might've been something missing in my supplementation, but you know I never got a blood test and I wish I got a blood test before competing and then after competing to see what happened. I definitely aged. I had gray hairs towards the end of the competition. My skin was getting so dry, my fatigue.
Speaker 1:My legs were just constantly heavy, and when you're fertile, when you have your period, you have so much more energy than when you don't. So in general, everything was zapped. So that's what I noticed when I didn't have my period that I just felt drained.
Speaker 1:24 7 yeah so it was kind of like at the time I wasn't really worried. I was doing a bit of research as well, because I was still studying to be a pt myself and I was interested in the nutrition side of things always. I decided to learn a little bit more about why I lost my period and it was just what I had learned from the internet. Essentially, other coaches in the industry was that, yeah, you just lost weight too rapidly for your body size and maybe you weren't having enough fats and I can say that I was not having a lot of olive oils, a lot of butter, avocados, like it wasn't a lot.
Speaker 1:So that's probably where the mistake maybe had been made. But regardless, I lost it. I did eventually get it back, but it happened about after I competed. It was about a six month process and yep, and then probably two months later I think it was in December I competed in October, I was prepping in May, competed October and then December is when I finally got it back, I believe or January Sometime around then, and I was so happy because I remember it was summer and I was on the toilet. I was like I feel funny, Like something feels weird, and I went to the toilet and I was like I had blood and I was like I celebrated.
Speaker 1:I was like yeah, it was really good moment and I was like, okay, I got it back what were your, um like your symptoms?
Speaker 2:did you have different, like she had bad mood, like PMS, or did it come and kind of like hit you hard? Or was it a very regular, normal period?
Speaker 1:very regular, very normal. I don't think it was painful at all. Um, I just, yeah, remember it being back to normal and I was like, okay, there was no clotting, there was no like regulation, there was nothing. It was just straight, beautiful, bright red blood, not spotting, it was just there. I was like, okay, cool, here we go again. Um, so it's possible to get it back.
Speaker 1:I think we definitely need to look at stress levels, amount of fats you're intaking. Quality food Like, as I said, I was eating really good food but it still didn't keep my period. So you need to look at your fats, you need to look at your stress and maybe some supplementation I think is definitely key. And look, I just put in our notes today, like magnesium and some b vitamins, but at the end of the day, the supplements aren't going to keep your period. It's a combination of things.
Speaker 1:So, people, you know if you're listening to this and you have lost your period, um, there is a calculation that I use and I'll share it happily, you typically, on macros, will have about 0.8 to 1 gram times your body weight of fat. So you know if you are tracking macros out there, if you are doing this and you have a cycle or you've lost your cycle. Check that you're within that range and if you haven't, I'd definitely go up to the 1 gram per body weight in kilos, or 1.1, 1.2. I wouldn't be scared of fats. A lot of people are scared of fat because they think it's going to make you fat, but it's not. They are the things that coat your hormones. They help with so much in your body in terms of activation, like there's vitamin K, which is found in our fats, which help the transportation and absorption of vitamin D. So fats are necessary, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think it's also differentiating good fats versus, you know, bad fats or you know. I think when most people think of fat, they think of like fast food, grease, and then all of a sudden that turns them off and that stops them from eating any fat altogether possibly there's definitely different kinds of fats I think.
Speaker 1:I think people think of fats as like when you say butter, or like some people still don't know what a fat is or a protein yeah, that's true, I I still get this conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think fats for people. They see butter and they run and they grab the margarine and the Nuttelex. Anyone who is using Nuttelex, throw it in the bin. I had a consultation the other day with a girl who trains. She's been training for three years. I'm like what do you eat? Show me what you eat. She she said Nuttelex and I looked at her and I was like what is this? And she laughed and she knew what was coming. Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 1:I'm like let's go have a look on Nuttelex website and see what's in it. She's like oh, but I thought it was natural. And I was like let's see what the main ingredient is. And I'm pretty sure the top three ingredients was canola oil, which is terrible. It's like machinery lube, essentially back in the day. And I think the second ingredient was water. Like you're, you're paying for approximately more water. Wow, then you need to be. I said if you have a look like, are you lactose intolerant? What's going on? She's like no, no, no, oh, my god, let's just go get real butter, milk, salt. That's all it needs to be yeah yeah anyway.
Speaker 1:So fats are not bad. But yeah, I think you are right in the sense that it's hard for people to differentiate between what is good and what is bad. But at the same time, I don't necessarily think that is true, because I think people just want to just do what's comfortable.
Speaker 2:It's hard to get uncomfortable if you don't know the difference between things and I guess also um, it's whatever the latest trends are on instagram or whatever's popping up on instagram. You know, if you have a look at the keto diet, for example, that's a lot of a lot of fat. So there are people that very much do eat a lot of fat and less carbs because they see carbs as the enemy. But then you get a flip side to that a lot of people eating less fat because they feel like fat is the enemy. So it really depends on where they're getting the information from as well. Totally agree what they're seeing online and what they're retaining.
Speaker 1:I think and this is where it comes back to research, I think because women are so misrepresented and our periods are still so not ambiguous, it's just different and there's more to this story. So back in the day when the ocp first came out, we are now seeing a trend of women who, unfortunately, when that came out, they all took it. It was, you know something. Well, not all of them, I'd say all, but there were a lot of women who decided to go ahead with the ocp and, you know, unbeknownst to them, they didn't know the risks, or maybe they did, but they didn't really think it could turn into a transgenerational kind of sorry cross-generational issue where now you've got women who have different symptoms of PCOS, endometriosis, adenomyosis, different things that are occurring. So I think, like there's a flow-on effect because we, as a like me, you, were the result of also our grandmother and our mother. So then eventually we have a child. That child is the result of me and my mother.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it just kind of keeps flowing on this like three, three generational cycle, and so this is what I'm saying. With the symptoms and the things that are going on in women's periods, it is so misunderstood because you've got a history of women who didn't know and who will never know now and the research is behind. I think science is behind by 10 years wow, yeah, 10 years and that's not.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of time. Like you think about how fast you get the new iphone once a year, like, and to get a really good study, like you know this as well it takes a lot more time. You can't just have something that's done in eight weeks like okay sure, eight weeks, but the best studies are randomized controlled trials, like double blind, whatever, whatever those hectic terms are.
Speaker 2:I know, I know the.
Speaker 1:RCTs are the best, but from then onwards, like time, time also matters, like someone's lifestyle and how research is represented and how that data is then collected and the biases in studies and how that data is then collected and the biases in studies. So, whilst you can go and try and look for things that might help you understand it, you also need to be your best self-investigator and try to understand your body and your parents' history, to kind of figure out is this something that is generational? Is this something that I'm doing that could change the symptoms? Anyway, but going back to losing your period, you can get it back.
Speaker 2:I go on tangents, guys and I think I mean it's not something I can personally relate to, but I have had a lot of clients lose periods from being on the pill, coming off the pill and then going through that transition of being on it for so many years to offer it. It has taken them a while to get their periods back and get their periods back to being normal as well Normal and regular.
Speaker 1:That is a good topic to talk about too, which I didn't actually think about. The thing with the pill is it depletes all your vitamins, your minerals, and it can not induce stress. But because you're lacking these minerals and vitamins, there is a different stress response and because it numbs your hormones. Essentially, estrogen is a stress buffer for a female and when we do go through our cycle, estrogen does plummet at some point and you will find that you are more agitated, you a little bit more can't tolerate things, you're not as resilient, right? I think this is a universal feeling. Yeah, and it's valid. So once you have the ocp, it kind of just numbs that and it kind of flat lines sorry, not numbs it, it flat lines it, it's not really going up or down.
Speaker 1:It's just kind of this same constant line straight across horizontal, and so where are we going with this? Once you lose your period yeah, when you do not have your period for that amount of time, depending how long it is, depending what type of OCP it was yeah, it can take some time because it has depleted a lot of your vitamins, minerals, and it's probably changed the way you also interpret your stress and you're gonna have to learn to bring that back up and coat your hormones with good healthy fats. I would highly recommend.
Speaker 2:yeah, um, it's a big conversation yeah, it's a big conversation that you can really go down a rabbit hole with this one, because there's so many different elements and there's so many different factors and everyone has so many different experiences and you hear so many different things. And you know, I hear a lot with clients as well in their experiences and their pain, um, and their periods and potentially how it's linked to chronic pain that they're dealing with. You know, I see a lot of lower back pain clients, hip flexor pain, pelvic pain, and that can often be related to period related issues. But I've also seen clients that, yeah, have been on the pill and have had very negative experiences on the pill and have tried to come off it and it has been a journey for them, yeah, coming off it and transitioning.
Speaker 1:And it just goes straight back down to this, the thing of being your best investigator, because everyone is different and no matter what you try and find out there I'm sure you can go on many Reddit forums, you can go Google your symptoms, like there are going to be everyone's case is different, everyone's story is different, every like. If someone comes to me and goes, I want to do X, y, z. I'm going to also ask a bunch of questions about their history, like you do as well, to understand how we got to this point, because and that's why sometimes an hour consultation is so hard to fit everything in oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it is ambiguous slightly, it is a little bit hard to understand fully, but it's worth exploring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, slightly. It is a little bit hard to understand fully, but it's worth exploring.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, it's worth continuing to explore and ask questions until you're happy with whatever answer you get, I suppose, yeah, women's health is also, I feel like, a bit of taboo and I think women find it quite embarrassing to talk about their bodies and what they're going through like. I had a sit-down talk with LTL staff the other day and I had Deanna, our new coach, do a bit of a period presentation and we got talking on something a little bit off periods and more related to female discharge, and that is a conversation that most women will not want to talk about.
Speaker 1:And it was so nice because it's just four girls and we're just sitting there and we're just having a talk about what is actually considered normal, and it was really empowering and it was a really good conversation. And then one of the girls actually we went away, we finished the conversation, we left, we went home and the girls were asking something about FemFresh because they've seen it everywhere.
Speaker 2:And then I'm like okay, we need to do a whole other presentation on female hygiene products, because this is also a scam.
Speaker 1:100 um. It's not going to help, like any, any. You should never put a soap on that area like, yeah, and people think that's dirty, but it's not. You just wash with water because you have so many different microbes living in that area that also like lactobacillus essentially different variations of them that also require their own pH level to regulate the area itself, so that's a whole other can of worms. But, like, periods and female health is something that women need to be a little bit more confident in talking about. But I just think it's really hard in our society because we find it embarrassing and it's not something I found easy to talk about.
Speaker 1:Like saying, the word discharge on on the podcast was something I'd never do four years ago, so like it's taken a while and that's, that's fair, because talking about my period, I guess is something I probably wouldn't have done, like four years ago.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it is definitely one that gets swept under the rug, it gets avoided, you kind of put up with the symptoms because you think it's normal and then it's not, until you hear the experience from other people that you sit there and you're like, oh, maybe I should do something about it, maybe this isn't normal, maybe I need to push harder, and I think I think for me personally it's um, it is frustrating because you really have to go and see so many different people until you find the right one, and that can literally take like 10 years yeah, and maybe that's why women kind of give up. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they end up just going through with the option that the doctor recommends, because they just don't want to talk to someone about the same problems again, which is an issue in itself.
Speaker 2:I honestly think so.
Speaker 1:Anything else on this episode about losing periods. I think we really that was short and sweet.
Speaker 2:That was short and sweet. I think the message from all of that is that you can actually get it back and that losing it can happen for different reasons, but it is important to make sure that you're looking after your body internally first, in terms of what you feed it, what you give it, and then you know, seek the right support and help for a plan on getting it back how you give it. And then you know, seek the right support and help on for a plan on getting it how you get it back yeah, it is always possible, especially if you are in your fertile years.
Speaker 1:Don't just accept no or don't just accept one option, especially if you don't want to. I know so many clients of ours come to us like I don't want to take this, like what else can I do? Like, okay, we're gonna have to look deeper and you're gonna have to go explore this with somebody else because, look, I've got information but that's, I can't. I can't read blood tests and I can't go down that deep. But I can give you some general information about it that you can go and take and explore it. But definitely seek extra external help. Naturopaths are fantastic, but you've got to choose someone as well who also is able to understand that.
Speaker 1:I have worked in the past naturopaths who've just been really hardcore well, one in particular and that fucking sucked. That was a really shit process. So if you feel like you also don't gel with the person, that's also not going to help. It's going to be more stressful. So you got to find people who actually care and actually have the empathy to understand that what you're going through is challenging and not going to make you feel worse about it. That's all. That's all I have to say on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's us, beautiful, that's us, that's today's episode, episode 82.
Speaker 1:Done.