Periods and Meds

Can meds keep you from having periods? Everybody keeps telling me it’s perimenopause because I’m 52 after all. Pdoc said this. I’ve been having periods every month for a year and a half or more after I got my mirena iud out which kept my periods away. Now I expect to have 42 day cycles in recent months but my period hasn’t started today. Maybe it will tomorrow? I asked my friend who helped develop gabapentin if the drug could make you skip periods and he said he’d never heard of that. Anybody else have their meds mess with their periods?

I've been on gabapentin a long time, and it hasn't affected my periods at all. I'm not an expert and I know some meds do affect periods, but I would think it's likely to be perimenopause. And even if you're regular, it's also not unusal for periods to be late a day or 2 or even a week or more; it happens.

I asked myself the same question. I’ve gone from a 28 day cycle to once every 2 months and my periods are very very light. I put mine down to perimenopause. I’m 46.

Found this:

Cramping without a period is called secondary dysmenorrhea, and yes, it's a possible symptom of perimenopause. Some people describe this sensation as “ovary pain.” “Fluctuations in your hormones and cycle length can cause irregular ovulation up until you reach menopause,” Dr. Fiffick says.Aug 3, 2022

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I just feel crampy like my period will start soon. It’s not my ovaries though it’s my pubic bone and lower back. And my legs ache.

When I was on haldol I didn't have a period for seven years... it was great! But when I went off it they came back again.

Looking back I think Seroquel (at a much higher dose than I take now, probably 900- 1200mg or so) really messed with my periods. When I was 34 I started having signs of early menopause and periods so heavy I was constantly on the edge of needing ferritin infusions. My moods were affected and after trying some other things for about a year and a half we decided to do a hysterectomy. Because I had bad reactions to having my hormones messed with my ovaries were left but my surgeon was pretty certain I would be through menopause within 5 years. (That was 12 years ago).


After my hysterectomy I went through hot flashes, ramped up migraines, all kinds of hormonal stuff that tapered off and so I assumed I was through menopause until I was sent to the high risk breast clinic. They want me on a med that depletes all the estrogen in the body that is sourced outside the ovaries because it will lower my risk. So I've been having FSH and estrodial levels every 6 months and while my hormones are consistent with being in menopause I am not through it yet and all those symptoms were not the end of it all. I do have some symptoms now but without a menstrual cycle the levels are only estimates of what is going on.

I blame the Seroquel because I came off it 8 years ago and that's pretty consistent with the end of the symptoms I was having. I just never thought about it.

Once I get through menopause I get 5 years of the estrogen suppressing med that I am dreading. It causes menopausal symptoms in a lot of women and I can't be on hormone therapy. But if it decreases my breast cancer risk it's worth it.

I can’t be on HRT either because I have a history of blood clots in my lungs.

I do not think that Gabapentin can do it but some antipsychotics can. I know Risperdal can affect you hormonally, but I forget in which way.

I am on Morena, with occasional spotting every few months. This is how it has been since 2004 when the first Mirena was inseted. I have been on a medium dose of Gabapentin since 2017. It did not change the pattern. Same occasional spotting.

Kinda? Before starting antipsychotics my BMI was too low for a period, but then Seroquel lead to eating and sleeping and a healthy BMI and a period (irregular, 3-6x a year, but it was there), and for similar reasons Topamax made it go away until I stopped it and got back up to a good weight. I know Invega, Risperdal, Haldol, etc. can affect prolactin levels and therefore cycles, but I've never noticed this effect in myself, but between ED&relapses, birth control and switching, and effects of bipolar that probably affect hormones (like sleep, stress, diet) the closest to a "regular cycle" I've had was 4 months of a 3 week cycle consisting of 10-14 days of bleeding and 10-20 days of not but still feeling PMS-like symptoms.

There has been at least one case where Gabapentin was suspected of stopping periods.
But if you're only a day or two after you expected it, I wouldn't think much of it (although after what I wrote about my cycle, of course I wouldn't). A period is only considered "late" if it's 5+ days after you expect it, or missed if there's no flow for 6+ weeks.