2020 has been anything but normal. It's disrupted our lives in ways we weren't prepared for.
Working from home while home schooling our kids, wearing masks to protect ourselves and our families, and having to hunt for a roll of toilet paper all adds up to a lot of stress.
As a result, many women are experiencing Pandemic Periods.
"I was excited to talk to you because I've been seeing that for the past several months now," said Dr. Diana Okuniewski, a gynecologist with the Women's Health Collective in Grand Rapids. "I have several patients who have come to me recently complaining of either skipped periods or lighter periods or they're coming early or lasting longer."
Dr. Okuniewski says it's completely normal during these times because women's bodies are smart. "It knows when a woman is in stress or has sickness it's really not a good time to get pregnant," she said.
During times of high stress, like a pandemic, women's bodies produce more of the stress hormone cortisol.
"That signals the ovaries to basically stop ovulating." said Okuniewski. Add to that a lot of binge watching while also munching on comfort foods, and you've got a recipe for disrupted period. "Any weight gain. A lot of women don't realize that fat tissue makes estrogen so that can interfere with our bleeding as well."
But, Okuniewski said that doesn't mean you should ignore irregular periods.
"We basically tell most of our patients if you have three abnormal periods in a row, definitely come in and see us." she said. Women can experience changes in periods even if while on birth control.
On the positive side, because a woman's body does make more estrogen when stressed, women might have a little more protection against COVID-19.
"We think that estrogen is protective to our blood vessels and our heart. What estrogen does is it can counteract that inflammation in the blood vessels." said Okuniewsk.
Which is good news in what's been a rather irregular year.
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