Are there reasons for a lack of a period other than menopause and pregnancy?

There are a fair few reasons why you may not have a period - and not all of them relate to menopause or pregnancy.  One of the most common culprits is stress, which can cause your body to do lots of weird things. 

Here's a brief list of some of the more common reasons why you might not have a period:

• Stress - as mentioned above, stress can play a huge factor in how your body behaves.  If you've been stressed recently, you should try to find ways to relax.
• Weight loss - losing weight can cause you to miss periods, especially if you've lost weight rapidly.  Eating a little more may encourage your periods to start again.
• Contraception - people who take the pill as a form of contraception may experience irregular periods, or even a lack of them completely whilst they continue to take their medication.
• Exercise - an influx is intense exercise can alter your period frequency, but this should return to normal over time.

You should always seek advice from your GP if you're experiencing a lack of periods.  Most of the time this is caused by abnormal hormone levels, but could be a sign of other illness too, so it's important to get a medical opinion.

Anorexic people don't get periods. My periods have never been regular or the same flow. Sometimes they're two to three weeks apart. Sometimes they're four months apart. I'm fifteen and I've only had my period for two years so the doctor said it was fine that it wasn't regular yet. 

I do intense exercise and sometimes it starts my period. So annoying! I really don't miss my period when I don't get it. Because I don't want children in the future. So the period is just a curse to me. I'm also eating mostly vegan. I only recently found out that restricting calories is bad and I've been trying to eat enough now, but in the past I've  always dieted restricting sometimes to only 300 calories a day. Those diets never stuck though, because I would end up binge eating a whole pan of brownies- 3000 calories! 

Now I try to eat 1800 calories on days when I'm not working out, and more when I do workout. I also take calcium and b12 vitamins because I'm vegan.

When you're highly stressed, you can miss your periods