Why doesn't an adolescent girl with anorexia have have a menstrual period?

Answer 1

It throws off the chemical balance in your body and a lack of nutrition can shut down different body systems, starting with the least necessary to keep the most vital running until they can't survive anymore.

Answer 2

To have a period requires a lot of calories to complete, along with blood and other nutrients in the body. In a person who suffers from anorexia, they are already limited on calories and nutrients. In order to conserve that and survive, the body stops expending those calories and nutrients on things that are not "necessary" for life, and an easy one to save a lot on is the period.

Answer 3

To have a menstrual period, the body needs to use up some calories along with large amounts of nutrietns (found in the blood). Anorexics tend to be deprived of both calories and nutrients. In order to conserve energy and as a primal-instinct health resort to save itself, the body begins to shut down various processes that it deems "un-necessary" or not vital for survival. This includes hair loss, dry and flaky skin, and a loss of a menstrual cycle.

Answer 4

The body is starving. It's not worried about reproducing, it's worried about surviving. It doesn't have the resources to reproduce, and even if it did, it would not be able to support a fetus.

It's a good thing that anorexia stops menstruation; if an anorexic could conceive, the child would be killed by the mother's starvation.

Answer 5

Anorexia deprives the body of essential nutrients and calories (which the body turns into energy) because of a restrictive diet and excessive exercise. Without nutrients in the blood - in particular iron - a woman's body will begin to "shut off" processes it deems are "unneeded". Since a menstrual period is not vital to living, such as the functions of kidneys or a heart for example, the body will cease to create periods in an attempt to conserve calories/energy as well as nutrients that it would otherwise lose.

Answer 6

It's called amenhorrea. I've had it for about 2 years. It's because your body doesn't have the nutrition and vitamins that it needs to produce the horomones that allow you to have a period.