What is hypothalamic ammonorhea?
The name "hypothalamic ammonorhea" may sound confusing, but your hypothalamus is a small region at the base of your brain that regulates important functions in your body, the relevant one here being hormones, and ammonorhea is just a medical way of saying period-free. So if we stick that together, hypothalamic ammorhea is when your hormones, regulated by your hypothalamus region are causing you to not have a period-- not so scary right? To break it down in simple terms, when your hypothalamus gets overwhelmed, it goes to sleep and stop producing estrogen. No estrogen means no ovulation, and if you aren't ovulating, you're period is no more!
Hypothalamic Amenorrhea is when significant stressors on the body cause the Hypothalamic region of the brain to shut down and stop producting gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)-- the hormone that tells the body to produce estrogen. The menstrual cycle is a reproductive vital sign and provides insight into hormonal imbalance as well as pregnancy. The significance of estrogen, however, extends beyond fertility and plays a role on tissues and organs throughout the body. Functional hypothalamic amenorrhea is a common form of secondary amenorrhea resulting in estrogen deficiency in young premenopausal women.
