It’s no secret that society’s obsession with appearance is at the basis of a growing variety of physical and mental health risks. Toxic eating regimen and workout culture has resulted in rates of eating disorders being at an all-time high, and Instagram itself has admitted that the unrealistic beauty standards promoted by its platform are damaging teens’ mental wellbeing. 

Less spoken about are the increasing numbers of individuals, like myself, who’re losing their periods due the intense weight-reduction plan and exercise habits promoted by social media. FHA (functional hypothalamic amenorrhea) is when the body stops menstruating attributable to stress attributable to an absence of fuel or over-exercise. The American Society of Reproductive Medicine reports that between one and two in every 100 women experience FHA, while one other study found that 30 per cent of ladies who exercise often experience period loss. 

And these are numbers which are growing. “It’s the tip of an iceberg,” says Mr Narendra Pisal, consultant gynaecologist at London Gynaecology, who has seen an increase in FHA cases over the past five years. The difficulty is so widespread that a latest genre of influencer content has arisen – advice videos on methods to get your period back. The TikTok tag #periodloss, which has over 2.9m views, is filled with young women offering advice and tricks to their followers. 

FHA is usually temporary, but when left untreated could cause a lifetime of health issues for those suffering, including infertility, osteoporosis, cardiovascular issues and an increased risk of tension and depression. “It’s shocking to me to see what number of women even have FHA,” says Ximena Diz, a nutritionist specialising in period loss. “It’s a growing global fertility and mental health crisis that should be addressed immediately.”

Eating too little and exercising an excessive amount of are the 2 essential aspects that cause the bodily stress response. This implies athletes can get it (from over-exercising) and people with anorexia can get it (from under-eating), but people like me, who yo-yo eating regimen or have binge eating disorders, may also get FHA from prolonged periods of eating little or no, without ever actually becoming underweight. In my case, years of obsessing over food and exercise left me with no period, but my outwardly ‘healthy’ appearance prevented me from getting an FHA diagnosis until three years later.

Dr Husain, of the Royal College of Gynaecology, says she has noticed an increase in cases of FHA amongst women who’re of a ‘healthy’ BMI (body mass index). “The pressures of two years of being locked away, with increased social media use, has made people very body-conscious”, explains Dr Husain. Society has found itself in a spot where restrictive eating and each day exercise are so normalised that girls are experiencing health issues normally related to elite athletes. 

Mr Pisal says that other types of stress may very well be exacerbating rates of period loss, too. “Relationships, anxiety, background anxiety from the lockdown and pandemic… and it’s not only Instagram, but additionally the Stravas of this world. Loads of women, in addition to men, try to push themselves much harder,” he says. In a world where all the pieces we do is tracked and measured, our bodies are having to pause normal bodily functions with a view to have enough energy to perform.

For a lot of victims, the difficulty begins online. Milly, who has since grown her 273k-strong Instagram following by sharing her weight gain and period recovery journey, says “social media had a big impact on my relationship with food and exercise, which definitely contributed to me losing my period”. It was after her long-term eating disorder peaked during lockdown that Milly contacted a coach to assist her lose more weight. But as a substitute, the coach put her on a ‘reverse’ eating regimen, a way utilized by bodybuilders to steadily increase calorie intake and boost metabolism, while gaining muscle and losing fat. Ten months and 20kg later, Milly had her first period in six years.

Lots of the influencers promoting less restrictive attitudes to eating and exercise still conform to strict beauty standards

Grace*, a fellow FHA sufferer, has an analogous story to Milly. “I used to be obsessive about this vision of wellness [that I saw online]: very beautiful young girls eating a lot of fruit. To me, that’s what being healthy looked like”. Grace began to run each day and restrict her food intake in hopes of achieving the sorts of bodies she saw on social media, before coming off the pill with the aim of losing more weight. It was only then that she realised she didn’t have a period, and sought help from a coach. “The algorithm knew what I used to be doing. I used to be on TikTok and I kept getting these online fitness coaches… It’s like an entire community based around eating more or reverse weight-reduction plan”.

Somewhat than sharing pictures of thigh gaps and acai bowls, this latest breed of fitness influencer promotes weightlifting, sculpted abs and glutes, and ‘intuitive eating’ (specifically, eating more). In a whole lot of ways, it’s a more balanced lifestyle. Yet, as Grace points out, most of the influencers promoting less restrictive attitudes to eating and exercise still conform to strict beauty standards. “I probably only really listened to those people because they were eating 2000 calories a day, but still looked how I desired to look.” ‘Reverse eating regimen’ now has 78 million views on TikTok, with many advocates sharing how the technique helped restore their periods and provides them an hourglass figure. But others, like coach Sarah Guerra, warn that reverse weight-reduction plan isn’t one other supposed hack to your dream body: while it could actually make it easier to construct muscle and lose some fat in desired areas, weight gain is inevitable, and needs to be normalised. 

With help from her coach, Grace cut her cardio, began lifting weights, increased her caloric intake, and got her period for the primary time in three years. Nonetheless, “I don’t think it’s necessarily that healthy, since you’re still tracking all the pieces [like calories, exercise and body measurements]. It’s still a whole obsession, but that change of obsession did give me back my period, my freedom. I wonder if it’s a slight pivot moderately than a whole change in how we view wellness”.

Health and fitness content, irrespective of how balanced, often still reinforces body image ideals and acts as a gateway to more extreme content. Yet it could actually also act as a crucial information source for a lot of, particularly with the shortage of medical resources for a lot of within the US. Influencers like Milly and Liv, one other online fitness coach who has made her own recovery from disordered eating and FHA, are working to teach young women in regards to the risks of maximum eating and weight-reduction plan. Social media “100 per cent” fuelled Liv’s eating disorder, she says, which in turn made her lose her period but she also believes “it could actually help massively should you’re following the best accounts”. 

It’s time we discussed the very real health risks posed by the pressures of recent life, the physical in addition to the mental. The excellent news is that the medical community is more aware than ever of issues like FHA, and awareness is growing amongst the general public, too. “The pandemic has definitely focussed people on mental health and the way the mind can affect the body in alternative ways”, says Dr Husain. As awareness of issues like FHA grow, let’s hope that, finally, we could be on the best track.