She Was Told She Had Six Months of Fertility Left. Then She Got Her Period Back.
At 26 years old, Kayla was told something no 26-year-old expects to hear:
She had approximately six months of fertility left.
She was told she had diminished ovarian reserve and was likely heading toward early menopause.
For Kayla, it felt like her entire future had suddenly been rewritten.
She had just started her career in New York. She was navigating major life changes. And now she was being told that becoming a mother might be much harder—or perhaps impossible—unless she acted quickly.
So she did what many women would do when faced with that kind of news.
She froze her eggs.
Not once.
Not twice.
Kayla ultimately went through five egg retrievals at age 26.
But there was something else happening in her body at the same time that wasn't being fully considered.
She had lost a significant amount of weight.
She had developed an eating disorder.
She had become increasingly restrictive with food.
She was exercising regularly.
And she had lost her period.
Eventually, she would receive a different diagnosis: hypothalamic amenorrhea.
And after a year and a half without a period, her menstrual cycle returned.
Her story is a powerful reminder that when a young woman loses her period, looking at one fertility marker in isolation may not tell the entire story.
Kayla’s Period Disappeared Before Anyone Had an Answer
Kayla developed an eating disorder around age 24 or 25 and lost a significant amount of weight over approximately six to eight months.
By 2021, she was at her lowest weight in years.
She also started noticing changes in her menstrual cycle.
Eventually, she realized she hadn't had a period for six months.
At the time, Kayla didn't immediately connect the dots.
She thought what she was doing was healthy. She was exercising. She was being disciplined with food. From the outside, she looked like someone who was taking excellent care of herself.
But internally, she was exhausted, stressed, rigid around food, and increasingly disconnected from her body's signals.
When she eventually saw a gynecologist in New Jersey in 2022, she underwent testing and ultrasounds.
That's when she received the news that would change the way she viewed her future.
She was told she had diminished ovarian reserve and approximately six months of fertility remaining.
“Maybe You Have Two to Seven Years.”
Kayla sought out a fertility specialist in Michigan because she wanted to be close to family while freezing her eggs.
Instead of six months, she was given a different estimate: perhaps two to seven years before menopause.
But the underlying message was still the same.
Her fertility was declining.
Kayla remembers thinking that she must be experiencing perimenopause and that menopause was simply going to happen much earlier than it did for other women her age.
Her AMH had been around 1.1, and the number became a major part of the story she had been told about her fertility.
And because more than one doctor had reinforced that narrative, it became very difficult to question.
As Kayla explained, hearing essentially the same message from multiple medical professionals made it feel real. She knew intuitively that changing her eating and exercise might matter, but she trusted the medical information she had been given.
So she moved forward with egg freezing.
Five egg retrievals.
At 26.
The Part of the Story That Was Missing
Here's where Kayla's story gets important.
She had already told her doctors about her eating disorder.
She had told them about her restrictive eating.
She had lost a significant amount of weight.
She had issues with controlling food and exercise.
And she wasn't having regular periods.
Yet hypothalamic amenorrhea wasn't initially considered.
This isn't about blaming individual doctors.
Kayla herself said she believed the people caring for her had her best interests in mind.
It's about asking a bigger question:
What happens when we look at one piece of the reproductive puzzle without looking at the entire person sitting in front of us?
A low AMH can be an important clinical finding.
Diminished ovarian reserve and primary ovarian insufficiency can occur in younger women.
But a missing period in a young woman who has experienced weight loss, restrictive eating, intense exercise, or an eating disorder deserves a thorough evaluation of the entire clinical picture.
That's especially important when the menstrual changes began around the same time as changes in nutrition, weight, exercise, stress, or energy availability.
What Is Hypothalamic Amenorrhea?
Hypothalamic amenorrhea, often called hypothalamic amenorrhea (HA), is a condition in which the reproductive system is affected by factors such as inadequate energy availability, nutritional restriction, significant weight loss, excessive exercise, and/or stress.
One of the most obvious signs can be a missing or irregular menstrual cycle.
But here's something I wish more women understood:
Your period is not just about reproduction.
Your menstrual cycle is one of the ways your body communicates with you.
When your body doesn't have the energy or resources it needs to support all of its physiological functions, reproductive function can be affected.
This is one reason why a woman who has lost her period after weight loss, restriction, or increased exercise shouldn't automatically assume that she is entering menopause.
That doesn't mean hypothalamic amenorrhea is always the explanation.
It means it should be considered when the history fits.
Low AMH Does Not Automatically Tell You Why Your Period Disappeared
This is where I want to be especially clear.
Not every woman with a low AMH has hypothalamic amenorrhea.
And not every woman with a missing period has hypothalamic amenorrhea.
There are many possible reasons for menstrual dysfunction, and conditions such as diminished ovarian reserve and primary ovarian insufficiency are real diagnoses that deserve appropriate medical evaluation.
But a hormone value should not exist in a vacuum.
When you're evaluating a missing period, your medical team should have the opportunity to consider your:
Menstrual history
Weight changes
Energy intake
Restrictive eating behaviors
History of an eating disorder
Exercise volume and intensity
Stress and recovery
Symptoms
Relevant reproductive hormones and other laboratory findings
Overall medical history
In Kayla's case, the combination of significant weight loss, restrictive eating, exercise, and menstrual changes was an important part of her story.
And eventually, when a fertility specialist looked at the bigger picture, Kayla was diagnosed with hypothalamic amenorrhea in December 2025.
Kayla Decided to Give Her Body Three Months
By this point, Kayla had spent years believing that early menopause was her future.
She had undergone five egg retrievals.
She had spent money, time, physical energy, and emotional energy trying to protect a future she believed was slipping away.
She was also understandably concerned about the health consequences of not producing enough estrogen and progesterone.
Her doctor was discussing hormone replacement therapy.
But Kayla had an intuition that she wanted to explore another possibility first.
She asked for three months.
She told her doctor that if she couldn't get her period back naturally within that time, she would consider hormone replacement therapy.
And that's when she began approaching recovery differently.
She Started Eating More and Becoming Less Restrictive
Around the end of December 2025, Kayla began researching how to recover her period naturally.
She started eating more.
She became less restrictive.
She began challenging some of the rules she had created around food.
One example she shared on the podcast was especially simple.
She was out to dinner with friends when someone offered her a piece of pizza.
Previously, she probably would have said no and ordered something she considered “safer.”
This time, she said yes.
Not because pizza was some magical fertility food.
But because she was beginning to practice being less rigid around food.
And she started noticing changes before her period even returned.
She had more energy.
Less fatigue.
She felt less on edge.
Something was shifting.
Then Her Period Came Back
Kayla and I had our consultation in mid-to-late January.
Her first period in approximately a year and a half came on February 1.
About two weeks later.
But I don't want you to read that and think:
“Great. If I eat more, my period will come back in two weeks.”
That's not the lesson.
Period recovery is highly individual.
Some women recover their cycles quickly. Others need significantly more time and support.
And getting a period back isn't simply about following a checklist of “eat more, exercise less.”
For Kayla, the deeper work was learning to live differently.
Getting Her Period Back Was Only the Beginning
One of the most important parts of Kayla's story isn't actually the day her period returned.
It's what happened to her life as she recovered.
For years, Kayla had been incredibly rigid around food and exercise.
She described being preoccupied with food at social events. Instead of enjoying time with friends and family, she was thinking about what she had eaten, how much she had eaten, whether she needed to compensate, and what other people might think about her body.
And that is why I don't believe period recovery should be reduced to simply getting a bleed.
I don't want women to get their period back while still living their entire lives around food, exercise, weight, and body control.
I want the period to be part of a much bigger recovery.
A fuller life.
More energy.
More flexibility.
More connection.
More freedom.
Kayla eventually recognized that the body she had worked so hard to maintain wasn't actually allowing her to feel good in her life.
She also realized that many of the fears she had around weight gain and body changes felt enormous while she was in them—but looked very different from the other side.
As she put it, she would rather have the changes that came with recovery because she had so much more energy and was getting her life back.
The Fear of Weight Gain Almost Kept Her From Recovering
This is an incredibly important part of Kayla's story because I know so many women can relate.
She wasn't afraid of recovery because she didn't understand that nutrition mattered.
She was afraid of what recovery might mean for her body.
Weight gain was her biggest fear.
She worried that people would think she had “failed” at maintaining the smaller body she had worked so hard to create.
She worried about losing her identity.
She worried about changing.
And she knew herself well enough to realize that if she attempted recovery alone, she might start eating more for a week or two, see changes in her body, and revert right back to her old behaviors.
That self-awareness ultimately led her to seek support.
And that support became a major part of her recovery.
You Don't Have to Recover Alone
Before working together, Kayla had tried to make changes privately.
She would try to eat more.
She would try to loosen her food rules.
But she was still carrying the fear and uncertainty by herself.
Once she had a diagnosis of hypothalamic amenorrhea and entered a program with other women experiencing similar struggles, something changed.
She started talking openly with her parents, boyfriend, and friends about what she was doing.
She told them she was working on getting her period back.
She talked about her fear of weight gain.
She let people support her.
And she found community with women who understood what she was going through.
Kayla said that being able to share her experience and no longer feel like she had to handle everything alone was a complete game changer.
Kayla's Story Is About More Than Getting a Period Back
Today, Kayla's story looks very different.
She went from believing she was heading toward early menopause to being diagnosed with hypothalamic amenorrhea.
She went from approximately a year and a half without a period to getting her cycle back.
And when we recorded the podcast, she was preparing for her fifth period.
She described the experience as surreal.
But perhaps the biggest transformation was the way she began to see herself.
Her body stopped being something she needed to control and maintain for its appearance.
It became something that could support her through her life.
And that's the part of period recovery that I care about most.
Because you can get a period back and still be miserable.
You can get a period back and still be terrified of food.
You can get a period back and still be exercising to compensate.
You can get a period back and still be living your entire life around the size and shape of your body.
That's not the freedom I want for you.
I want you to get your period back and get your life back.
What Should You Do If You've Lost Your Period?
If you're in your 20s or 30s and your period has disappeared, especially after weight loss, restrictive eating, increased exercise, or a history of disordered eating, don't ignore it.
And don't assume that one lab value tells the entire story.
Start by talking with a qualified healthcare professional who can evaluate your individual situation.
Ask questions.
Share your complete history—even the parts you feel embarrassed about.
Tell them about changes in your food intake.
Tell them about your exercise.
Tell them about weight loss.
Tell them about your period.
And if something doesn't feel right, it's okay to ask for another opinion.
Kayla's story isn't proof that every woman with low AMH has hypothalamic amenorrhea.
It isn't proof that a diagnosis of diminished ovarian reserve is always wrong.
It isn't a reason to ignore medical advice.
It is a reminder that your entire clinical picture matters.
And if you have that little voice inside you saying, “Something about this doesn't make sense,” you are allowed to keep asking questions.
You are allowed to advocate for yourself.
You are allowed to seek another opinion.
You deserve to understand what is happening in your body.
Kayla's Message to the Woman Who Sees Herself in Her Story
When I asked Kayla what she would say to the woman listening who sees herself in her story, her answer was simple:
It gets better.
She reflected on how much of her life had been consumed by fear, rigidity, food, exercise, and maintaining a smaller body.
And now, from the other side, she could see how much life there was beyond those fears.
There was so much more to experience.
So much more connection.
So much more freedom.
She hopes another woman who is debating whether to seek help or begin recovery will know that life on the other side can look very different.
And that's what I hope you take from Kayla's story, too.
Your body is not your enemy.
Your period is not a burden.
Food is not something you need to earn.
And recovery is not about becoming less of yourself.
Sometimes, recovery is how you finally get yourself back.
Want to Hear Kayla Tell Her Story?
Kayla and I talked about everything on the podcast—from being told she had only six months of fertility left, to undergoing five egg retrievals at 26, to eventually being diagnosed with hypothalamic amenorrhea and getting her period back.
We also talked about the fear of weight gain, the emotional side of fertility diagnoses, why community mattered so much to her recovery, and what she would tell her younger self.
Listen to Kayla's full story on the podcast.
And if you're reading this because you haven't had a period and you're wondering whether hypothalamic amenorrhea could be part of your story, you're not alone.
There is a way forward.
Cynthia Donovan, MS RDN CDN
The Period Nutritionist
