Amenorrhea - Causes

Nothing causes such violent emotions in women of childbearing age, like menstruation, and especially their absence. Young girls are looking forward to their beginning as a sign of growing up, young women are always worried: "Is it really pregnant?", And for middle-aged women the absence of menstruation becomes the first sign of a climax ...

If the "critical days" of a woman aged 16-45 do not occur within six months or more, they speak of amenorrhea. Amenorrhea can not be called an independent disease, rather it is evidence of the presence of other disorders in the female body: psycho-emotional, genetic, physiological, biochemical.

Causes of amenorrhea

Because of the causes that cause the termination of menstruation, we can distinguish the following types of amenorrhea:

• false amenorrhea - while in the ovaries and uterus all the necessary hormonal processes occur, but menstrual discharge can not go outside due to defects in the structure of the genital organs;
• true amenorrhea - the reason for not onset of menstruation lies in the absence of ovulation and the necessary cyclic processes in the body.

In turn, depending on the causes of its causing, true amenorrhea happens:

• physiological - due to age (childhood, menopause) or natural conditions (pregnancy, lactation);
• pathological - caused by violations in the body of a woman.

Primary and secondary amenorrhea and the causes that cause them

The condition, when a woman has never had a period, is classified as primary amenorrhea. If the menstrual stopped after some time after the beginning, then it is a secondary amenorrhea.

The main causes of primary amenorrhea:

1. Genetic factors:

• later onset of menstruation in a family history (mother and sisters);
• Turner's syndrome - insufficient development of the sex glands.

2. Anatomical factors:

• insufficient physical development - leanness, low body weight;
• Defects in the development of the genital organs - infection of the hymen or vaginal canal.

3. Psycho-emotional factors:

• stress;
• anorexia;
• excessive physical activity.

The main causes of secondary amenorrhea are:

1. Anorexia, a sharp decrease in body weight due to following hard diets and excessive physical exertion.
2. Polycystic ovary.
3. Early (in women under 40 years) menopause.
4. Hyperprolactinemia - increased blood levels of prolactin.

Lactational amenorrhea

The absence of the menstrual cycle in the postpartum period, with breastfeeding of the baby is called lactational amenorrhea. This state of the female body is a physiological method of contraception. During this period, ovulation does not occur, therefore, it is impossible to conceive. Talk about the effectiveness of the method of postpartum amenorrhea can only be the first six months after giving birth, provided that the baby is breastfed and receives the breast on demand at least 6 times a day.

Psychogenic amenorrhea

Amenorrhea, which occurs against the backdrop of the strongest psycho-emotional loads and experiences, is called psychogenic. Very often psychogenic amenorrhea occurs in adolescent girls with unsteady nervous system after mental trauma, mental overstrain (exams, admission to university), or as a result of an excessive desire to achieve an "ideal" figure, due to hard diets and exorbitant physical exertion. To treat such a condition is necessary under the supervision of a psychoneurologist, sending treatment for the elimination of stress and bringing the lifestyle back to normal.