HA Recovery Case Studies Part 2
This is the second installment of our case studies series. I recently posted these case studies on Instagram, but wanted to dive a little deeper in to what we did to help these clients get their periods back!
Client AL
AL had no period for most of her life. She was doing a LOT of walking outside of having a job on her feet. She struggled with poor body image a lot, this was the crux of most of her issues and drove a lot of her behaviours. She also had a long history of serious trauma that we needed to understand in order to move forward.
Prior to working with us, she had done a LOT of work on her own to get better. Most of her progress can be attributed to her own hard work, that’s for sure.
What we did together:
We looked at her nutrition first. She needed to increase animal protein (so common) and increase specifically her monounsaturated and unsaturated fat intake. We also got her started on a very simple supplement regime, nothing crazy.
Then we focused heavily on her mindset with her exercise addiction and unpacked a lot of her body image and self worth challenges. This was crucial because without doing this, we would struggle to get her to reduce her step count or stop her from binge exercising, which would happen during times of stress.
She recovered her cycle after about 2 months working together. Then we got to work lengthening her luteal phase, which did take longer due to small behaviours that she was holding on to. This is common and honestly, expected after a long struggle with trauma and exercise addiction.
For AL, slow and steady wins the race. We are still working together on cycle optimization but mostly on mindset because the reality is that although you can un-do a lot of the trauma and disordered behaviour of the past and although you can make changes to get your period back, long-term recovery takes a lot more time.
Client HS
HS had no period for 10 years. She was a competitive runner in the past but now, she runs just for fun.
When she finally stopped her hormonal birth control she was shocked to find that her period didn’t return…and dove in to her research because she was desperate to start a family.
She discovered that her running and dieting was causing hypothalamic amenorrhea which was holding her back from getting pregnant.
Here’s what we did:
We increased her overall food intake. Many of us know we need to eat more…but it’s hard to believe it, trust in it and feel safe to do so. Creating that safe environment and helping to provide HS with the information and evidence she needed to commit was key.
We also discovered that she was ‘hoarding’ her food to the end of the day - a very common habit that dieters develop! So we played with meal timing, moving her food intake to earlier on in the day. This helped to balance her blood sugar and bring her cortisol (stress hormone) down – meaning she was literally less stressed throughout the day.
She was still walking a lot, so we shortened her walk durations. After many months and what felt like forever, HS did get her period back after bout 6 months.
We went through a few cycles together to help get prime her body for conception and then boom, it happened! HS is pregnant at the time of writing this.
I hope that these case studies have been helpful to you. Maybe you see yourself in them, maybe it will help you realise an action that you need to take. Either way, recovery is possible for you.
