Thread: Please help! Recovering anorexic, 16 years old and stopped receiving period.

Hi! I'm a 16 year old girl, weighing 133lbs at 5'11. Currently I am recovering from an eating disorder (bulimia with anorexic tendencies). This past year I have lost 30lbs, at the beginning of my weight loss journey (which was healthy at the time), I would receive my period monthly. But after I had lost 10 pounds in the duration of two months (by February) I would stop receiving my period. I haven't received my period in the past 6 months, my menstrual cycle initially started when I was 14 and was regular. I know it is normal for teenage girls to have irregular menstrual cycles but I worry that I haven't received my period in such a long period of time.

I went to a gynecologist and my doctor, in my blood work I had no complications (both hormonal and other), the only thing that I don't have much of is iron-but anemia is common in my family history. I no longer am as stressed out as I used to be and I beg my brain to get my period back since obviously it is only very stress related. I have high anxiety which does make me stress out a lot but this has been an ongoing situation since before I even started receiving my period. I also am a sufferer of very intense and painful migraines (dizzy spells, vomiting, confusion, etc) and have been hospitalized 3 times because of my migraines. My migraines proved to be stress related so when I began to relax more I stopped receiving them and now I haven't gotten a migraine for more than a year.

In a week's time I am leaving to boarding school in the UK which is far away from home and I won't be living with my family. My gynecologist told me that he would give me time to think about birth control until I came back for holiday break (in late October). However, today I had a check up with my doctor and he urged me to go on birth control even though he didn't really know of many types of birth control. He told me to go on Yasmin, but after further research online I read that majority of people experienced weight gain and higher levels of anxiety or depression or migraines. Because I am prone to all three (anxiety, depression and migraines) I decided that it wouldn't be worth it to go into a new country without my friends and family support on a birth control that could give me these side effects. Basically, my question is SHOULD I try Yasmin? Or should I go with my gut instinct and keep carrying out this "drought"?

Ultimately the choice is yours. Your dr. is there to advise you, but it sounds like you know yourself pretty well. It's great that you took the time to research before making a decision. My dr. keeps pushing birth control at me on every visit, but I'm just not comfortable with the side effects. I had an iud for a few years, but had it taken out when the strings moved higher. I was afraid it would move and stab through something. Lol. I'm a smoker too, so I have to worry about blood clots more if I use birth control. I think I'd rather be pregnant than dead. Lol.

There are a lot of different birth control options out there, even if it's condoms. You just find what works best for you. If I were in your situation, I wouldn't want to deal with side effects that were already a problem.

Did you ask your dr. about the gap between your last cycle?