I decided back after my last cycles post that it really didn't make sense for us to be ttc just then; we're building a new house, and being pregnant while doing that didn't make a whole lot of sense (which turned out to be a good thing because had it happened relatively quickly, the house has NOT, and would have made things, um, interesting).
In the meantime, I've been tracking my cycles. It's interesting to me, while they generally tend to be around the normal 27-28 days, I O a few days late and then have a short LP. Here's the list so far:
Cycle # CD of O LP length
1 37 6
2 22 6
3 23 7
4 21 9
5 21 9
6 15 9
7 20 10
8 17 10
9 18 10?
(The last is a ? because it hasn't happened yet. And maybe it won't...)
It's nice that my LP has been getting marginally longer each month, usually about 6-12 hours per month. And yes, I have been somewhat obsessive about all this tracking!
3 comments:
Hi there,
I have had hypothalamic amenorrhea for years (ever since I lost a significant amount of weight - from obese to normal weight). My nutrition is good and my calories are okay and my body fat was not too low (low 20s). But I still had hypothalamic amenorrhea.
What really helped me was two treatments. The first was taking leptin in an experimental study. If you have HA you may have low leptin and qualify for the study.
Taking leptin gave me the ability to have menstrual cycles at all; however I still skipped months sometimes.
What filled in the gap was using bright light therapy. After using bright light therapy (for my depression), I started having ovulatory menstrual cycles every single month.
Later I found out a few things...
1) bright light makes LH and FSH increase and it lowers melatonin (all of these play a role in HA as well as in depression)....
2) serotonin and dopamine play a big role in the reproductive cycle, particularly during periovulation, so anovulation (e.g. PCOS tendency) will also improve via bright light. I have always had not only HA but also a PCOS tendency (an inability to ovulate) which seems to have improved tremendously.
I've noticed my mood and my reproductive competency to improve together, so in my case, I think my depression is linked to my reproductive disorder... either as a direct consequence, or as both being independent symptoms of a nervous system/neurotransmitter disorder.
Either way, please do consider bright light therapy, it has helped my HA a LOT.
(oh and I don't seem to have a problem with luteal phase defect - when I ovulate my progesterone does get high and it lasts at least 14 days almost all the time, sometimes longer).
(Charissa here) Just out of curiosity, when did you start the lunaception? The previous comment about light therapy is really interesting in light of the whole lunaception thing. And you just wear an eye mask for the first 12-13 days of your cycle and then again after ovulation? What do you do if you have to get up in the middle of the night?
Crikey, you're going again?! Good luck!
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