People with periods: Did you notice changes in your menstrual cycle?

31F, \~142 lbs, trying to get down to 130. I've been doing 16:8 for about a month now (usually fasting for more like 12 hrs on weekends), doing fasted workouts \~4 days a week and non-fasted workouts 1-2 days a week (cycling, running, light weight lifting during the week; longer hiking/biking on weekends). Recently, I have started getting spotting between my periods. This has been going on for maybe 5-7 days now. I'm on birth control (Nuvaring) and have been for my entire adult life, and haven't encountered this issue before. I haven't really lost any weight since starting IF, nor have I drastically increased my exercise or decreased my calories - I am definitely not starving myself, and have the body fat to prove it. So question to the people who menstruate is - have you noticed any changes in your cycle since doing IF? Periods stopping, spotting, anything in between? This hasn't really happened to me before. Curious for others' experiences.

Answer

It might or might not be related to IF. If it is, it’s probably caused by the mild physical and mental stress of adjusting to IF.

After several months of OMAD, I had spotting for three weeks while still on the pill (last month of one of those three-month continuous pill packs). That freaked me out a bit, but my doctor wasn’t worried — she said it was probably stress-related (I did have a lot of stressful things going on). Because I had no other symptoms, it was unlikely to be anything serious. It didn’t mean the pill wasn’t working. Just a weird thing the body can do under stress.

Then I went off the pill and shocked the hell out of myself by having a normal cycle for the first time since I was about 14. I have PCOS, and for almost my whole life, I just plain didn’t have a period if I wasn’t on the pill. My body didn’t seem to know how to ovulate. Instead I got huge ovarian cysts (ew). But this time? Everything went like clockwork.

I don’t know for sure that IF was responsible. I do know that PCOS and insulin resistance are linked, and that treating insulin resistance is one way of treating PCOS, and that IF can help reduce insulin resistance. So it’s plausible.

I also don’t know whether the spotting on the pill was in any way related to whatever hormone shift let me actually ovulate when I went off the pill. Hormones are weird.

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I have nothing to add to your question but just wanted to thank you for using non-gendered phrasing.

Edit: yikes why the down votes? I was serious. Inclusive language like “people with periods” is refreshing to see.

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Last week was my first period since starting IF. It came two days sooner (the 11th instead of the 13th) and lasted a tad longer. It usually last about 3-4 days max but I was spotting up until yesterday.