Panicking (Missing Period- Negative Preg. Tests)

[Belle202]

Hi everyone,

I'm in a bit of a panic, so I apologize if this post ends up being too long. My husband and I have very lazily been trying to conceive. Mid January (this year) I started the Whole30. I finished the 30 days- and since then I've continued to follow a lot of the rules. For example, I still haven't had any dairy, only have had peanut butter once, noodles once, etc. I've lost 30 pounds (woo hoo!) since I started almost three months ago. That's the great news.

Here's the not so great.

My period is missing. As in, nowhere to be found. I know I ovulated this month (per an ovulation prediction kit), and my period was due Tuesday. Here we are- Saturday. No period. In the past my cycles were irregular, ranging from 24 to 29 days. My last two cycles (since starting the whole30) were both exactly 25 days. I am now on Cycle Day 30- which makes ZERO sense since I ovulated March 13-15. The weird part is that I thought I was having pregnancy symptoms- I went from feeling energized every day to needing to lay down and nap every day after work. I'm SO tired. I feel sore. I think I've noticed that my sense of smell is stronger- but I'm going to be honest, that one is probably psychosomatic. But every single pregnancy test I've taken has been a BFN (big fat negative). Soooo clearly I'm not pregnant. Now I am panicked that my delayed period (and other symptoms) are due to the Whole30, and the fact that it is very low carb. Has anyone else had issues with their period? I tried doing a search, but from what I've read it seems like most of you have had major improvements with your cycles- not disruptions. I'm so upset. I can't even sleep because I don't know what is going on with my body. And I don't know what to do to fix it. I'm afraid I've done serious damage and considering we're trying to conceive and I'm not getting any younger, I'm very worried. Please- if anyone has any insight, share!

Oh- and FYI, I do not think stress is delaying it. I'm a Type A personality who is pretty much always in a state of stress/worry, and these past few weeks have been significantly less stressful than other times in my life. Let's put it this way- I've never had a delayed period due to stress, even when I bought a house, planned a wedding, and wrote a thesis all within a few months. If it wasn't delayed then (I was a crazy person then), I don't think any stress can delay it.

[ShannonM816]

We really can't give you medical advice. If you are concerned about this, it's probably worth talking to your doctor, just to get a professional opinion on what could be going on.

Some people do have disruptions in their period, but it's usually early on, say during the first month or two of eating this way, and then they see it even out. As for doing serious damage, if you mean by eating lots of vegetables, healthy fats, and protein, I don't think that's the case. 

Is it possible that your tiredness and soreness could be from some kind of illness -- maybe you've picked up a mild version of flu or whatever illness is currently going around in your area? 

It's possible to get false negative results on a pregnancy test, especially early on in a pregnancy if your body hasn't yet produced enough of the hormones it's testing for. If you can get in to see your doctor soon, you could ask for a blood test, which would be a little more sensitive and less likely to yield false negatives. 

If you think this may be due to low carbs, know that Whole30 doesn't have to be particularly low-carb. We recommend at least a fist-sized serving of starchy vegetable each day for most people, but you can have more if you think you would benefit from that. You can have them at every meal if you want to. If you think there's any chance this is part of the problem, go ahead and up your starchy vegetables for a few days and then reassess how you're feeling.