Missing the Monthly Gift

March 18, 2015 9:04 AM

Has anyone here experienced a skipped menstrual cycle after quitting regular marijuana use, or know of someone who has? If so, how long did it take to get back to normal again? There are some forums I've found which suggest quitting cigarettes can cause this, and I am wondering if stopping smoking other substances can cause the same effect.

Context: I am worried because I have never missed a period in my life when I wasn't on hormonal birth control. You could set a clock by my cycle. I have definitely been stressed lately, but I am a chronically anxious and stressed person and it's never caused a problem before, so why would it now? I am most definitely not pregnant (so sayeth three HPTs and one formal blood test.) I can't see my OB GYN for three weeks. I'm a 30 year old woman who has lost a few babies and I want children so badly. I can't help but worry that it'll be just my luck to have entered early menopause. (Don't laugh.) I'm hoping some feedback from some calmer and wiser women (or men?) will help me get through this.

posted by dissolvedgirl22 to Health & Fitness (9 answers total)

right around my 30th birthday my cycle got all weird when previously i had been bleeding like clock work - to the point that i knew what time of day i'd start. now it's all 2 months with nothing, 1 month with 2 periods, 4 days late, 4 days early, bleeding for 9 days, and on and on and on. doctor says it's not totally abnormal and to fix it i should go on birth control. i can't do birth control, so i just live with it. stress spikes (which sometimes correlate with no weed) make it go even wackier.
posted by nadawi at 9:24 AM on March 18, 2015

30 year old woman here who never skipped a period in her life until last year during a stressful event. The following month it came back (with a vengeance) and has been regular since.

Since you're not pregnant, No panicking yet. Schedule an appointment with your GYN for 7 days after the due date of next month's menstrual cycle. Keep the appointment if you skip it again.. if it comes back cancel the appointment.
posted by royalsong at 9:27 AM on March 18, 2015

If marijuana was in part managing your anxiety, you are likely experiencing an anxiety rebound as you no longer have the substance as a comfort ritual. The anxiety rebound will normalize in terms of going back to baseline, if indeed this is the case. Like others are saying, stress spikes influence our cycles. How is your current anxiety relative to when regularly using marijuana?
posted by Punctual at 9:46 AM on March 18, 2015

Likewise I was super regular until 30 or so, and now I miss periods for no obvious reason every now and then, and sometimes the gaps are longer or shorter. (My girlfriend is definitely not getting me pregnant.) Not a bad idea to get a checkup if it becomes a regular thing, but I personally wouldn't worry about a one-off.
posted by restless_nomad at 9:56 AM on March 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

I was a daily user until a year or so ago when I had to stop completely and suddenly (due to non-health reasons). It didn't affect my periods at all. But like others I had an episode when I was about 30 when I skipped a period even though they've always been like clockwork. It reappeared about 6 weeks late and I had a ridiculously heavy one for about 4 weeks, and then they settled down again. I'm 38 and they're still totally regular. Maybe it's just a weird hormonal spike that happens to some people? Maybe just get a checkup to put your mind at rest but it might not be anything significant.
posted by billiebee at 10:19 AM on March 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Long shot, but did you eat more on weed? My cycle is extremely sensitive to my diet.
posted by kapers at 10:34 AM on March 18, 2015

I meant to add: truly, there is something about the 30s. My cycle went so suddenly wacky at 32 that I looked up "early menopause," exact same term you used here! Turned out to be nothing. I'm not back to clockwork but the cycle is there and I'm fertile.
posted by kapers at 10:37 AM on March 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

My period gets screwed up around the time change, in both directions. It's pretty much the only deviation I ever get (except when jetlagged, for I assume the same reasons). It started when I was 29.

And yeah, your 30s. Something happened again around 42 for me as well and it's all different now.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:08 AM on March 18, 2015

Response by poster: I did eat more and I was, relatively, less anxious when constantly high (shocker.) I guess I didn't put two and two together on that one because for me, less anxious still means very, very high levels of anxiety. Which is one of the reasons I want to quit, too. It helps, but certainly not enough to justify dependence.
posted by dissolvedgirl22 at 11:25 AM on March 18, 2015