NEED TO KNOW
Cynthia Donovan wanted to be thin for her wedding and became increasingly focused on diet and exercise as the big day approachedAfter missing her period for years, doctors diagnosed her with hypothalamic amenorrhea at age 29She wanted to have children, so she started eating more and exercising less, and eventually gave birth to two boys
Cynthia Donovan was a regular at the gym for years before her engagement. She prioritized health and fitness and had a nutrition plan to match.
But after she got engaged in 2010 and the wedding date grew closer, she became increasingly focused on diet and exercise.
“I started exercising more, I started eating less and cutting calories so I could look my best and have the body that I always wanted,” Donovan tells PEOPLE. “And I think the wedding was a big, big motivator for me to become more disciplined.”
She ultimately saw results, but they came at a cost.
“I was only focused on making sure I didn’t eat this or ate that, and nothing got in the way of my exercise plans,” Donovan says. “I look back, and I was just miserable. I wasn’t even focused on the meaning of the wedding.”
She was also not having her period anymore. At the time, she thought it was because she had been on birth control pills for several years. She stopped — but her period did not reappear.
Shortly after returning from her honeymoon, Donovan said she began a “scavenger hunt,” visiting different doctors and undergoing testing to determine why her period was missing. Because she’d been taking birth control for so long (she’d gone back on it during wedding season, then stopped after she got married), she wasn’t sure exactly when it disappeared.
“They didn’t think it was a big deal, because I wasn’t trying to have babies at that particular time,” she says.
Cynthia Donovan.
Cynthia Donovan
She was initially misdiagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and still had no period.
Donovan became worried about her ability to have children someday. So she went to see a fertility specialist.
“I wasn’t ready for babies, but it made me ready, because I thought, what if I couldn’t have them?” Donovan says.
But none of the treatment options felt right, and she returned to her OBGYN, who referred her to a reproductive endocrinologist.
The doctor recommended she eat more while cutting back on exercise. He eventually diagnosed Donovan with hypothalamic amenorrhea, which is when the hypothalamus — the control center of the brain — causes menstruation to stop, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
“I did not like this answer, because I love to exercise, I love to eat healthy, I was a dietitian,” Donovan recalls. “That’s who I was, that’s what I do, and you’re telling me I can’t do it anymore?”
Donovan was 29 years old when she received the diagnosis, but she didn’t immediately come to terms with it.
“Finally, someone gave me an answer, but I didn’t trust it at the time,” she says, adding that she didn’t believe she fit the typical description of a woman with HA because she didn’t have an eating disorder or a low BMI.
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“It doesn’t fit into this little pretty box of you have to be underweight or be anorexic or an athlete,” she says. “You can just be your average gym-goer, average CrossFit athlete that works out daily.”
“I was caught between two worlds of like, ‘God, maybe I do have to change my lifestyle.’ But at the same time, the rest of the world is eating less and moving more, and there’s women out there that can have babies and weigh less than me,” she recalls.
Finally, she convinced herself to follow the doctor’s dietary recommendations.
“I did start to nourish my body more, eat more, even though it felt wrong for me, because I spent so much of my life trying to be healthy, and I thought by eating more, that just automatically makes you unhealthy, which is far from the truth,” Donovan says.
Cynthia Donovan with her son Brian.
Cynthia Donovan
Still, she worried her efforts might not be successful. Determined to become a mom, she also started fertility treatments, including Interuterine Insemination, which was “mentally and physically exhausting.” Finally, the treatments worked, and Donovan had a “beautiful, healthy pregnancy,” delivering her son Brian in August 2016.
“I just never thought I would experience this feeling of holding a baby in my arms. Because I would dream about this,” Donovan says. “I wanted to hold this baby, I wanted to be able to breastfeed. And so I think once I started not only nourishing my body, resting it more, I think that really helped move that needle for me.”
Her period returned when she was 12 months postpartum, while she was breastfeeding.
A few months later, Donovan conceived again, this time naturally.
Cynthia Donovan with her sons Brian and Brayden.
Cynthia Donovan
“I think I took like 20 pregnancy tests,” she says with a laugh.
Her second son, Brayden, was born in September 2018 and the boys have become “best friends.”
Now, the registered dietitian hosts “The Period Recovery Podcast” and hopes others will treat their periods like a vital sign.
Her advice for women facing similar health challenges is to “advocate for themselves, and if they’re not getting the answers that they need, to continue to seek clarity for themselves.”