Severe psychological stress can cause chronic menstruation that resolves with relocation

Evidence

EVERYTHING CRASHED around Lina. Her relationship with Laith had turned rocky. Wisam was in prison. School was going nowhere, and she had stopped working at the bagel shop. Her menstrual cycle was disrupted by the stress, and she found herself bleeding for a solid three months. She went to see a doctor, who wanted to perform surgery on her uterus. “Does that mean I will lose my virginity?” she asked him. She refused the surgery, and in July 2003 she moved to Virginia instead. The relocation was calming. Within days her bleeding stopped. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 672

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Menstrual hygiene’s practical burdens transform girls’ bodily revulsion into chronic anxiety about discovery — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 750; Girls develop psychosomatic illnesses as an unconscious exit from marriage