I STARTED MY PERIOD!!!!
It’s been 18 YEARS since I’ve had a real period and 10 YEARS since I had a “birth control period”. Yes you read that right. I don’t know why I feel the need to share how this all went down. Maybe to show how wellness is so multifaceted or maybe someone could resonate. My journey is unconventional, a little woo woo and a testament to the body’s ability to heal itself. I also want to be so clear that this is my specific journey and there is no right, wrong, straight forward or simple path…especially when you are dealing with your hormones. And of course, consult with your practitioner for what’s best for your specific biology. Also, I linked a lot of things for more information in the name of keeping this shorter!
A little backstory…
I first started my period when I was 15 and like most girls had really heavy, painful periods. I got on birth control when I was 16 and of course my periods became lighter and very regulated. Although, on birth control you aren’t having real periods rather a “withdrawal period”. The birth control pill manipulates your brain to shut down FSH and LH that signal your ovaries to make estrogen and progesterone, and the pill continues to supply your body with artificial hormones.
My freshman year at Mizzou I decided to go off the pill and I didn’t have a period for an entire year. I went to see my OBGYN and at 17 she put me on Provera (synthetic progesterone that start helps start a period) then she prescribed more birth control and my fake periods returned. I stayed on the pill until I was 25. I still look back on this and think why didn’t anyone think this was odd? Girls,or mothers of girls this is NOT normal for your body to stop having natural periods.
After Mac and I got married (even though we had no desire to have kids any time soon) I got off of the pill thinking it might take awhile for my periods to return and wanted to give my body ample time. Of course, as many of you know…it didn’t come. I was diagnosed with hypothalamic amenorrhea, which is simply the absence of menstruation due to an unknown problem in the hypothalamus.
Around 28 I started questioning why? Why wasn’t my body making the hormones needed to ovulate and have periods. I started ALL of the hormone testing. My OB in Columbia (who I adore) tested my hormones and I had the estrogen and progesterone levels of someone who has gone through menopause. They were also suspicious that I had PCOS and although I didn’t have classic symptoms, I did have very cystic ovaries. I really started to clean up my diet by eating mostly organic, whole foods but I didn’t follow any particular diet. Just paying attention to ingredients and focusing on more veggies, healthy fats etc. I also started looking into hormone supporting supplements like maca, fish oil, vitamin d, prenatal vitamins. I stopped doing really intense workouts and focused mostly on yoga. At this time I also started paying attention to the toxins in my products and in our home. Most conventional products have endocrine disrupting hormones which is a huge contributor to why girls are starting periods so young and fertility is plummeting in general. We are inundated with chemicals and toxins. I don’t stress about what I can’t control but I started to clean up what I put on my body and at home. And there are some AMAZING, luxurious non toxic products out there now. And there are also effective, budget friendly products and home made recipes that keep the chemicals out of your body. Our bodies can only take so much and the overall toxic burden can majorly affect us mentally, physically etc. I also started acupuncture and exploring alternative therapies. And really started to fall in love with these healing modalities.
When I was 29 I started to feel that I had done everything the natural way (even though I was just getting started!) and to be honest Mac and I were just was really ready to have a baby. I was ready to turn to western medicine and traditional fertility treatments. I did one round of clomid which didn’t work even a little so my Reproductive Endocrinologist put me on FSH shots and after an IUI, Bo was conceived! Obviously, fertility treatments are very unpleasant at best, really expensive but in the grand scheme of things we were very lucky with how easy and short amount of time it took to get the love of our life. While I was pregnant the natural hippie in me really started to come out. I wanted things as natural as possible, really watched everything I consumed internally and topically and started meditating very regularly to keep his stress low and good vibes high :). Fun fact: I was 4 days past my due date and was dilated 0 and 0% effaced. I had my acupuncturist, Tara, who I saw during my fertility treatments and pregnancy do induction points (they won’t do until you’re 40 weeks) and I was in labor 2 hours later!
I had Bo when I was 30 and nursed him for a year. But guess what happened after I stopped nursing? My period was still nowhere to be found. By this time it had been 6 years since my last fake period and 14 years since my last real period. Not a spot, not a drop. At this point I start really doing a TON of research. I was already eating reeeeallly healthy because I truly love to eat that way, but my stress was actually pretty high though. For some crazy reason by business partner and I decided to open a Cafe while we had infants. Nourish is actually baby #2 for Kimber and I both.
But anyway, I dove head first in this innate, unexplainable desire to have my body heal itself. And I was so curious to know why! I started reading books like Woman Code, The Hormone Cure and really wanted answers. Why was my body not making hormones?? I started working with a Naturopath from Colorado and she again tested my hormones using the DUTCH test (I highly recommend this test!) and still my estrogen and progesterone were non existent. The naturopath tried some supplements and progesterone cream and while I felt great, still no period. One supplement that helped me tremendously and actually started to increase my cervical fluid was a methylated B complex vitamin. I tested positive for heterozygous MTHFR gene mutation so the B’s really helped. She also tested me for early menopause with a blood test that measures anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) and it was normal. We knew I had plenty of eggs. She admitted that usually through diet improvements, appropriate supplements and getting rid of chemicals in everyday products, most women’s hormones begin to balance. She was at a loss and so was I.
One night I was having a moment of deep sadness and frustration. I was crying on the phone to my mom and together we started looking up top functional medicine practitioners in the country. Chris Kresser popped up and I scheduled a consultation. Mac and I flew out to see him in Berkley, CA which lucky for us, is near Napa so we made a trip out of it! Before the trip he ran SO MANY test to rule out anything. He said my case was really “peculiar” as there was nothing out of the ordinary or “wrong” and I actually felt great physically. So we delved deeper. We did a heavy metal detox (after testing for mercury and lead). The mercury cleared through 3 months of specific herbs and botanicals but after retesting the lead was still in my body. He prescribed an intense chelation protocol but after several months we got it out. (I have no idea where it came from but once again we are exposed to so damn much!) I got my gut in tip top shape with his gut healing protocols. What I love about functional medicine is they use alot of science and testing and they see you as a whole, interconnected system and find the cause. For example, if a woman has endometriosis or PCOS, in western medicine that’s your diagnoses and that is the reason for other symptoms. But really that diagnosis is a symptom of something else gone wrong. Functional medicine looks to heal the imbalance causing the disease.
I had Dr Maxwell, a local practitioner test for food intolerances and I had no idea how bad eggs were for my specific body. I was eating them all the time and after I got the test back I eliminated them and now it’s clear as day that they inflame my body. I miss those sunny side up beauties but they aren’t worth the stomach pains and puffy face. I was also getting adjusted by my chiropractor, Dr Phelps regularly to make sure there weren’t blockages (subluxations) preventing the communication of my nervous system (brain to ovaries). BTW we have some incredible chiropractors in our community. I have seen both Dr Maxwell and Dr Phelps and they are both amazing and they actually do have different methods. The idea is to take all of the physical stressors off of your body.
And by now, I was down the wellness rabbit hole. Restorative yoga, infrared saunas, acupuncture, adaptogens, crystals, meditation. But still no period. I really started to get into energy medicine and doing reiki and learning how to manipulate my own energy. I now have such a deep and solid spiritual practice (which is why I think this all happened!) Through all of this I have never felt like the victim. I now have such a surrender to God/the universe’s plan. There is no feeling of control or holding tight. I feel light, free and like I am working in flow with the universe and my spirit guides. PS want a life changing spiritual book? The Seat of the Soul.
I also did tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique) with my neighbor, turned soul sister. I can’t recommend tapping enough. Although talk therapy is wonderful, what do you do with the shit that comes up? It HAS to be released because it’s true that emotions are stored in your tissues. And you can think positive all you want but until you release the negative it will still be sitting there under all of those positive affirmations. I released a ton of suppressed emotions. I am a very optimistic person and feel immensely grateful for my life so I felt guilty for even having any sadness or anger. But it’s human nature and if you never acknowledge and release they just sit there and wreak havoc. I now use tapping all of the time at home, even on Bo! It’s amazing for meltdowns and snaps him out of it. As you can see I really started doing a lot of really deep work beyond the physical. So while I’m more at peace and blissful than I’ve ever been with a stronger marriage than ever, still no GD period. But I knew I was getting closer to healing the issue. I could feel it.
This summer I had an MRI on my head to make sure there wasn’t a benign tumor on my pituitary gland. It turns out there was a microadenoma (a 4 mm cyst on my pituitary gland). I was referred to an Endocrinologist and she said she didn’t think this had anything to do with the amenorrhea and if I wanted a period I needed to get on birth control and if I wanted a baby I needed to go see the fertility specialist I saw with Bo. She really was kind and I have no doubt she has helped thousands of patients but she just wasn’t my gal.
I talked about it again with Kresser (as I have regular appointments over the phone with him through all of the treatments and testing) and we had one last game plan before starting bioidentical hormones. We knew that for whatever reason my pituitary gland would not communicate with my ovaries to make the necessary hormones. We knew layer by layer we had rid my body of all of the stressors (diet, toxins, heavy metals, inflammation, body). We had already tested and cleared EVERYTHING. I needed to focus on firing my pituitary gland back up after 18 years! (mind you, I tried Provera before I had Bo and that didn’t work as it did in college because I had no uterine lining to shed from the lack of estrogen). We decided together we were going to give it 3 months of chinese herbs, I started seeing Dr Hoyle, a local practitioner who does muscle testing to give me the exact nourishing supplements my pituitary was asking for, I did craniosacral therapy and meditated and visualized my pituitary coming back to life and the adenoma shrinking. I also started seeing a new acupuncturist, Gina, who used the same chinese herbs as Kresser so there was a lot of synergy there. We knew if this didn’t work I would have to be on bio identical hormones the rest of my life as it’s dangerous not to have any estrogen or progesterone at my age and for so long. After only a few weeks I started having some symptoms indicating my estrogen may be increasing that I had never had before (except when I was pregnant). My nipples were so tender and cervical fluid was really increasing. I had Gina, my acupuncturist, try to stimulate a period because I just felt a lining was building. I felt it and I sensed it. On Monday last week, I was on a walk, talking to my sister on the phone and I STARTED MY PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My first real period since I was 17 years old. I hadn’t worn a tampon in 10 years since my last fake period. I cried. My sister cried. My mom cried and Mac was at the Cardinals game when I called him and he cheered louder with excitement than the day I told him I was pregnant. And it was a normal 6 day beautiful period that I was so beyond thrilled to have. I don’t know what this will look like for getting pregnant but I know I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. I just have this sense of trust, whatever the outcome may be.
All of our journeys are so incredibly unique and you have to do what is right for you. I have no idea why I have such a strong desire to do the work to fix the issue or the curiosity but this is what was right for me. One message that I do want to make crystal clear is that our bodies WILL always heal themselves if you give it the right conditions.
And I am certain the following are truths for everyone and these are things are will always continue to do:
FOOD: Eat nutrient rich food as often as you can. Our bodies don’t recognize processed shitty ingredients, herbicides and pesticides and it can’t do its job properly when it’s dealing with these things. One person’s superfood can be another person’s source of inflammation. I really recommend getting tested for food intolerances or doing an elimination diet. I also think food is meant to be a source of pleasure and being restrictive and stressed about eating clean is worse than eating the “unhealthy” food or avoiding dinner with friends because you are afraid of eating out. If you are out to eat, eat what you love and feel so grateful for it. Yes nourish your body, add in superfoods but love what you eat! Your thoughts about the food is just as important as what you eat. (Obviously this doesn’t apply if you are allergic or really intolerant to a food…don’t eat that!)
TOXINS: Chemicals in beauty products and home products are a major stressor on our systems and will build up over time. Our bodies are always working to detox but it can only handle so much before the burden starts to become too much. As I mentioned earlier there are SO MANY effective non toxic products on the market now. There just really isn’t the need to slowly poison yourself anymore…
MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL HEALTH: Your thoughts affect every cell in your body. Properly deal with trauma and release anger, sadness, unworthiness, whatever it is. That shit will eat you alive and you may have no idea. Mental stressors are everywhere (work, kids, traffic, whatevs) but if you have a healthy body, with tools to handle the stress (deep breathing, tapping, energetic shifts), then they will not become stress to your body. Be grateful and choose your thoughts carefully!
FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE: We are so bio individual. Find a functional medicine practitioner to test and spend time with you before an ailment turns into something more serious. It always will if you don’ t nip it in the bud early. Functional Medicine and all of the testing may seem expensive but it always saves you money in the long run. And you just feel great in your body! Also if you are a woman get the book Woman Code and start cycling syncing asap!! Every phase of your cycle, you have drastically different things going on in your body. She teaches how to eat, work out, work etc based on each phase of your cycle so we can have healthier, more balances cycles. Even if you have no desire to get pregnant, it’s imperative to our health that you have healthy hormones. I have been on 50 different supplements throughout the various protocols Kresser had me on but now I’m only taking Ritual Pre Natal, Chineses Herbs very specific to my situation, Methylated B vitamins, Seed Probiotic, and Magnesium. And remember this is based on my specific needs so be sure to get tested for your own needs!
THE REST: Get outside in nature as much as possible. Drink filtered water. Get quiet without distraction even just for a few minutes. Take deep breaths. Live in gratitude. Sleep. Move your body in a way that brings you joy…never dread.
There are so many modalities of healing and I have tried just about everything because I am so damn curious, slightly desperate and just generally love this stuff. It may seem like a lot, but for me it is significantly less expensive than fertility treatments. These alternative therapies make me feel vibrant, balanced and loving rather than feeling irritable, bloated, sad and not myself at all like it did on fertility treatments. And I also want to be so clear than I am grateful I was able to conceive Bo and the brilliant minds that helped get him here. I don’t think there is anything at all wrong with fertility treatments. The point of this is to share my experience and give you hope that you can heal your body. Find what works for you and what practitioner you connect with whatever route you choose. There are so many books, podcasts but also so much conflicting information. Take pieces that work for you and your body and don’t be dogmatic about any of it.
with gratitude,
Kalle