r/Amenorrhearecovery

Just wanted to be another voice of reason (mainly to myself lol) and de-glamourise HA and choosing appearance over our health, especially in the wake of “skinny-tok” and for anyone struggling.
For context I’ve lost my period two times now, and for the second time I’ve still not had it in over two and a half years. I never meant to lose weight but as someone who’s neurodivergent and struggled with her mental health, I found food and my body image as something I could finally be in control with. I fell in love with going to the gym and strength training but I was also obsessed with steps and couldn’t bear rest days. However, I was never underweight and I was still eating over 2000 calories so I thought why is this happening? But because our bodies are soooo different and with exercise and muscle and eating low carbs due to digestive issues, I was still in a energy deficit (hence don’t compare yourself to other people’s journeys or think your not “sick” enough to recover).
At the start of February I got a calf strain in my right leg. Cut to today, aka 9 months later, and I STILL have the injury except it’s worse and I haven’t been able to work for the past month and need crutches to walk around on.
Now I don’t think my HA caused the injury but it’s definitely impacted my recovery and because I was resting, I was stupid and cut my intake, became underweight and now my injury is worse and I’m in so much pain. How arbitrary is it that once again my body had to fail on me as a scream for help and I still chose aesthetics over my own health? I also have fallen victim to past ED thoughts which has only added to how miserable I am.
I’m writing this from my bed in agony and all I can think about is being able to walk a few steps without crutches. I fantasise about being able to run and cycle and lift and I’ve finally realised if I want to do all that, that it’s about working with our bodies and fuelling them so I can LIVE.
So yes, I am “lean” and “skinny” but who cares when no one can see because I can’t leave the house? I’m FREEZING all the time. I can’t sit still because I can feel the bones in my ass. I am sooooo mentally and physically tired and so irritable that I can’t see friends/pulled away. My memory is horrendous and the brain fog is terrible. I can’t even work and do what I love. The food noise is terrible. My sleep is the worst it’s ever been - I can’t fall asleep and I can’t stay asleep. I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve cried because my sleep has been that bad. My hair is falling out. I can’t bloody shave my armpits because there’s no fat there.
So please, I’m begging you all, and I’m begging myself, we are worth so so so much more than our bodies and I hate to think that some of you are experiencing what I am because life is way too short to be injured and miserable.
Let’s think more about what our bodies can do and less about what our bodies look like.
When we are 90 years old (which, let’s recover so we can live that long!!!) is it cool to still be weighing your food and counting your ab lines, or will you take pride in all the memories and fun you’ve had in your life?
I’ll let you answer that - I’m choosing the latter :)

Hello! I was cyclical HRT (estrodial .1, and 12 days of progesterone). This month, I decided to stop and see what happened. I took off the patch on Monday night and today I woke up to bleeding/potential period. Is this a real period or withdrawal bleeding? I did not take a course of progesterone this month. Scared to get my hopes up… also seems odd to bleed like three days after stopping the patch.

my obgyn basically ghosted me and im back to eating matinence. i feel fine and am eating enough. no period still. should i get another obgyn?? i feel normal except the fact my period still never came back after underrating and over exercising. i lost it in february. obgyn ruled out hormonal issue and said it was from losing 30 pounds from underrating and over exercising. if i’m eating normal and feel fine now but still have no period what do i do?

Ever since I lost weight and got FHA I have been craving sweets , chocolate and overall unheksthy stuff like crazy. When I start eating anything I can’t stop and I’m just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and if it eventually stopped for them?

Thanks in advance

people who have went from a low bmi to now being weight restored - how do you view your older body? are there things you haven’t noticed back then?
specifically if you struggled with the thought of “not looking sick”

I feel like my body is looking totally healthy at a very low bmi, and my therapist said to just give it time, and see how my perception changes during recovery

Everyone in my life is telling me to just relax and be patient but I’m going a little crazy and looking for some insight. I don’t know if this kind of question is allowed..but does this sound like anyone else’s HA situation? Or am I overthinking/being impatient? Have an OB appt next month and I want to be prepared with what to bring up. I went off birth control 90 days ago and have not gotten a period since and haven’t ovulated (I test daily with LH strips). I did have a withdrawal bleed immediately after stopping BC however nothing since then. I don’t know if it’s normal for it to take this long to resume period after being on BC for 13 years but actively TTC so just getting nervous! I went on the pill when I was 15 d/t super heavy periods and so I don’t know what my natural cycle is like as an adult

Why I’m concerned about HA- I did lose a substantial amount of weight in the past year. I lost about 20 lbs from August 2025 till June 2026. I have since put about 5 lbs back on from my lowest weight in June. I was never overweight but wanted to get shredded for my wedding so that’s what I did! I do intermittent fasting, don’t eat till 1pm and usually stop eating about 9pm (I did stop this in the past week after reading about HA). I do track my calories and was limiting myself to 1500-1600 per day (I’ve started eating more in the past week). I get 10,000 steps per day and do some form of exercise every day whether it’s lifting or walking or both. I wouldn’t say my lifts are super intense though. I do have a history of a bad relationship with food, definitely have some very restrictive tendencies…it’s a lot better now but thinking about eating more and gaining weight is really scary to me…but so is not getting pregnant so I’ll do what it takes.

I know nobody here is a doctor and I do have an appointment scheduled for next month, but just wanted to hear some outside opinions! I’m just not sure because I am a healthy BMI, I’m not underweight, so I don’t know, and if it doesn’t sound like HA is a possibility then I don’t want to gain weight for no reason! Thanks in advance!

I miss who I was. I miss having structure around meals/my intake. I miss exercising and doing lots and lots of steps. I miss seeing the scale go down. I miss getting compliments for my body.

I know that all of those thoughts are bad, and I know that most of them are directly influenced by my ed. But I can’t help it.

The fact that I will never see my lw on the scale again, that I will never go back to fasting for days and days, that I will never be that sick again is so sad to me.

I just want to go back. It felt so comforting.
But I can’t. I still don’t have my period, I am still restricting myself from certain foods, I am still sick. But I don’t feel like I am.

I am not as unhealthy as I used to be. And my brain is telling me that I am basically not sick anymore. Why??

I hope it’s okay for me to post this here, and I really hope I’m not breaking any community rules or doing anything wrong by asking about this.

I’m 28 years old, 170 cm tall, and weigh 55 kg. Over the past two to three years, I have lost approximately 16 kg.

I do strength training three to four times a week and try to get at least 8,000 steps a day. I currently eat around 2,200 calories per day and make a conscious effort to get enough carbohydrates (more than 250 g per day), as well as sufficient fat and protein. I have been eating this amount consistently for around six months to a year.

I stopped taking the birth control pill about four months ago after being on it for approximately 13 years. Since stopping, I haven’t had a period. I have taken several pregnancy tests, all of which have been negative.

I have seen my doctor and had a gynecological examination and blood tests. So far, everything appears to be normal, and they haven’t found an obvious explanation for why my period hasn’t returned. They have advised me to wait until December, and if I still haven’t had a period by then, they will refer me to a gynecologist for further evaluation.

They have also suggested that I could try gaining a couple of kilograms and reducing the amount of exercise I do. However, I find the idea of intentionally gaining weight quite difficult, especially when I don’t actually know whether my weight or exercise level is the reason my period hasn’t returned.

I would really like to understand what could be causing this and whether gaining weight and/or reducing my training would genuinely be likely to help in my situation.

Lastly, I wanted to ask if anyone here has been through something similar or has any advice they would be willing to share. I would really appreciate hearing about your experiences and what, if anything, helped you.

I’ve been feeling quite alone in all of this, so hearing from others who have experienced something similar would mean a lot to me.

MENTIONS OF DISORDERED EATING

i know i’ve been posting a bunch but i feel so confused with everything and it can’t hurt to ask for opinions lol.
i see a lot of posts about extreme hunger but i feel like i might just be binging? i’m not restricting afterward because im very familiar with the cycle and don’t want to fall into that. but today for example, here’s what i ate:
had a decent sized breakfast around 6:30 of eggs, potatoes, a bagel with cream cheese, berries. i felt full and went to work. i clean houses, and the first house had a bowl of chocolates out. it was around 9:30, about 3 hours after breakfast so i had 1, cause why not!? then, (throughout the workday) i had:
house 1
-2 lindor truffles
-2 reese’s cups
-4 mini hershey bars
-4 caramel filled pieces of dark chocolate
house 2
-3 lollipops
house 3
-2 david protein bars
-full sized hershey chocolate bar

and then on my way home (around 1:45pm)

-pumpkin cheesecake milkshake
-cream cheese filled pretzel

and when i got home (2:15ish)

-italian sub
-2 pure protein bars
-uncrustables
-2 pb and j sandwiches
-finished my tub of cool whip

yeah. and i could’ve eaten more but i felt so disgusted with myself. i’m feel like an eating machine and im on autopilot consuming everything in sight. why not like fruits or vegetables???! i even stopped at the gas station and ordered food knowing i wasn’t hungry and would feel gross afterwards ??? i truly think if i hadn’t had that first piece of chocolate this morning that none of this would’ve happened. i just feel kind of helpless and don’t know if this is extreme mental hunger or if im just binging like crazy. also started journaling to work my way through my feelings when this happens. i will see how that goes :) thank you!

Hi,
I’m worried about my recovery, since i now have new schedule in school.
I have courses on two separate campuses, and I have to walk to school. I don’t own a car or even a licence, and unfortunately don’t have money for taking the bus that much. Ive gotten now almost 20k steps everyday.
Can I just make sure im properly fueled or is my recovery just gonna dip here:\

I’ve been struggling with this for quite some time now my hormones are completely out of balance with low estrogen and estradiol, putting my body in a “menopausal state” due to restriction and intense exercise. My face tends to get extremely inflamed with stress or random occasions, and I am wondering how to reduce it. I randomly get fatigued and feel my nose get inflamed my jawline, and under my eyelids hold water. Is this cortisol stress? Any tips to help regulate it?