If you’ve been following me or my health journey, you probably know that for the last decade, I’ve been struggling with nutrition due to my stomach, intestines, and esophagus becoming suddenly paralyzed my senior year of college. (That is a whole different story you can read more about here).

I spent the first five years of this decade-long battle not knowing what was wrong and being told everything was in my head. This left me eating one to two “safe” foods every day for years. When I say safe foods, I mean the foods that caused me the least amount of symptoms, which changed depending on the year. Some of the staples during those years had been sweet potatoes, sorbet, popsicles, and avocados. It’s safe to say this diet was not well-rounded. Not to mention, I could only have a tiny bit, making my daily intake anywhere from 200 to 600 calories. I was severely malnourished and underweight.

As you probably know, when a woman is malnourished or underweight, she will most likely lose her period so that her body can save its energy to stay alive. So when I lost my period all those years ago, I knew why and wasn’t overly concerned because – well, I had bigger issues like how am I going to survive today.

I thought I would get answers, medicine and better a lot quicker than what happened. It took 5 years until I was finally diagnosed with Gastroparesis, Chronic Intestinal Pseudo-Obstruction, Intestinal Dysmotility and Esophageal Dysmotility – all due to a rare condition called Autoimmune Autonomic Ganglionopathy. 

Did I lose you yet? Yeah, I know those are big words you may not have heard of so let’s briefly break them down: 

Gastroparesis: A rare condition where the stomach takes too long to empty its contents into the small intestine, which can cause symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. (AKA Stomach Paralysis)

Chronic Intestinal Pseudo Obstruction: A rare condition where the muscles and nerves in the intestines don’t work properly, which can cause symptoms similar to a bowel obstruction. (AKA Intestinal Paralysis & Pseudo-Obstructions)

Intestinal Dysmotility: A rare condition where the muscles and nerves in the intestines aren’t working properly, which can cause symptoms such as constipation, bloating, and abdominal pain. (AKA Intestinal Paralysis)

Esophageal Dysmotility: A condition where the muscles in the esophagus (the tube that connects the mouth to the stomach) don’t work properly, which can cause difficulty swallowing, chest pain, and regurgitation of food.

Autoimmune Autonomic Ganglionopathy: A rare autoimmune disorder where the body’s immune system attacks the autonomic ganglia (a group of nerves that control automatic bodily functions), which can cause symptoms such as low blood pressure, rapid heart rate, gastrointestinal issues and basically all automatic body functions to not work properly.

When I was diagnosed with these conditions, it was made clear that I was going to need to get a feeding tube so that I could get adequate nutrition to survive.

I thought that after getting the feeding tube,  I would get my nutrition, menstrual cycle and ultimately my life back to some form of “normal”, whatever that actually means.

However, that’s not what happened. I had so many issues – from the formulas not working to infection after infection after infection – that malabsorption and malnutrition became constant companions I didn’t want and could not get rid of. Now, again, two big words, so let’s take a second to define them.

Malabsorption: a condition where the body is not able to properly absorb nutrients from the food that is eaten, which can lead to deficiencies in vitamins, minerals, and other important nutrients.

Malnutrition: a condition that results from a lack of proper nutrition, which can occur due to inadequate food intake, malabsorption, or other factors. It can lead to a range of health problems, including weakness, fatigue, and compromised immune function.

Despite working really hard to get my health back on track and going through many painful, tear-filled days to get all my nutrition in, I still didn’t get my menstrual cycle back.

I waited and waited, but after a couple of months, I still couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t getting my period.

The reason why I was so concerned about getting my period back was that, as you probably know, having your period is a sign that your body is ready to and can procreate. This means that it is not feeling like it needs to shut down to stay alive – which basically means that, at least for me and my specific situation, getting my period back was a sign that my health was coming back too.

So when I was not getting it – I became concerned. 

I had been diagnosed with amenorrhea years ago but was told it would most likely come back with my nutrition. Yeah – let’s pause and define this one because it’s important.

Amenorrhea: a medical term used to describe the absence of menstrual periods in women who are of reproductive age. It can be caused by a variety of factors, including pregnancy, breastfeeding, hormonal imbalances, certain medications, and certain medical conditions.

I knew that getting my period back would be an important part of my journey to getting my health and life back on track. So when I wasn’t getting it, even after being really intentional to make sure I was getting everything I nutritionally needed, I investigated further with labs.

My labs were not indicating any reason why I wouldn’t be getting it. I was so confused and frustrated. 

I had gotten the Oura ring to help me monitor and track my health due to my other conditions and after learning about all the features and insights it offered, I decided to try to use it to help me get my period back and it changed the game people.

So in this blog post, I want to share how I used the Oura Ring to help me get my menstrual cycle back after not having it for almost a decade, so that if you are struggling with getting your period back and can’t figure out why – maybe this can help you too.

NOTE: There are a variety of medical conditions and situations that can cause you to lose your period. This post just chronicles and shares my personal experience after I had done labs, spoken with my doctors etc. If you are trying to get your period back, be sure to speak with your physician so they can make sure that there is not anything underlying going on.