Irregular Periods Could Signal Fertility Disorder

Women with irregular periods usually blame stress or other lifestyle factors, and often use hormonal birth control to make their cycle regular. But an irregular period could signal something serious: primary ovarian insufficiency, characterized by a lack of reproductive hormones. The condition affects 1 in 100 women by age 40, and it greatly reduces fertility, NPR reports.

Birth control pills can be a dangerous deception to sufferers of POI, because the external hormones regularize periods. After starting on the Pill, a woman may think, "'Oh, it looks like things are fine now, because my periods are coming,'" said a POI researcher. "But, in fact, their ovaries aren't supplying the hormones to make that happen, so it's masking the fact that their ovaries aren't working."
(More birth control stories.)