If your period is late, and are reading about this here, we hope this article can assuage some of your concerns. While delayed periods might be something to worry about, sometimes it can be normal also. For example, during your first few periods, while your cycle is still normalising, it is quite common to experience irregular periods. Period cycles also vary from one person to another! Some might experience that their period comes on the exact same date as the last period. Whereas, some women might get their periods a couple of days before or after the date of their last periods. On average, the period cycle is 21 to 38 days long. So if you get your period after 28 days in a given month and after 26 days the next month, there’s probably nothing to worry about. But your period might be considered late if it has been more than 38 days since you had your last period.¹ Missed or irregular periods can be a result of many other things apart from pregnancy. A few common reasons for delayed periods are:
1. Stress:
Excessive stress or even just stress can have a significant impact on the period cycle as well as flow. Stress is a mental condition and the gland responsible for controlling the hormones that in turn are responsible for regulating periods (called the hypothalamus), is also situated in the brain. Therefore, with increase in stress, the impact on the hypothalamus also increases. This further leads to hormonal imbalance, resulting in late/delayed periods.
2. Excessive exercising and rapid weight loss:
Hitting the gym a bit too much? Intense workout and diets can be one of the reasons why you may be experiencing missed or late periods. It has a great impact on the hormones that regulate the period in the body. Exercising to lose weight and a calorie deficit diet is associated with a calorie burn. Similarly, overdoing both can result in excessive loss of calories and body fat. This loss can also include the calories/energy that your body actually needs in order to function. Without sufficient energy the performance of the body will start slowing down along with the reproductive functions. According to the NHS of the UK, losing too much body fat through intense exercise can also stop you from ovulating.2
3. Birth control pills:
Birth control pills specifically combination pills contain hormones estrogen and progesterone. The pills actually disturbs the hormone levels in females. It produces hormones in a way that it prevents pregnancy by stopping ovulation (release of an egg). The pill will affect your menstrual cycle whether you are on it or have just stopped the course. It technically takes few weeks or months for you to start having regular periods again.
4. Polycystic Ovaries Syndrome:
Polycystic ovaries syndrome also known as PCOS, is a condition where one may experience irregular periods, failure to ovulate, a higher than normal level of male hormones and outwardly symptoms like hair fall, acne, male pattern baldness and so on. A missed period is often one of the most tell-tale signs of PCOS.3
5. Anemia:
Women of reproductive age are commonly affected by anemia and iron deficiency. Iron deficiency or difficulties absorbing iron may cause a woman to miss her periods, or have fairly late periods due to impairment of blood flow in the body.4
Sudden weight gain or weight loss, medications, sleep schedule changes or certain medical conditions like Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), thyroid etc are other reasons why your periods delay. Finally, it can also be when you are entering perimenopause – the first stage of menopause. This decrease in periods is caused due to the decrease in estrogen hormone, which happens around menopause. Pregnancy can also be a reason for missed periods.
You might consider visiting a doctor for a better understanding of your delayed period and the treatment of the same.5 6
