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15, flat chested no period
I'm a female, and my weight is 100 pounds. My height 5'2 my band size for a bra is 28 inches. I was supposed to get my period at age 12 said my doctor, my breasts have devoloped but they stayed the same size since 5th grade! Do I have delayed puberty? I don't eat much not because of a disorder I am just not hungry. This is not not normal, correct?
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Want to answer more questions in the Sexual Health and Reproduction category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Menstrual/Period Issues?
You are not by yourself I didn't start mine until I was 16.
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Age 12 is the average age for a women to get her period. Some get it at age 9, others at age 17. An average is just an average, it's not the truth for everyone.
If you are concerned, talk to your doctor, but there is nothing unhealthy about not having your period by age 15. It's a bit unusual, but still perfectly normal. Worth bringing up with your doctor, but not worth panicking about.
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We are not doctors so we cannot make diagnoses. To answer your question it is not unheard of for a young girl to be a late bloomer and not enter puberty until 14 or 15. My sister was just such a young girl and did not get her first period until her mid-14th year and her breast started develop about the same time.
One thing I know for certain is that if you are underweight puberty and development can be delayed. I will explain in a moment. At 100 pounds you are definitely underweight just how much depends on your frame size. (See chart below)
Height Small Frame Medium Frame Large Frame
5'2" 108-121 118-132 128-143
The body is designed with one primary objective which is to keep the brain functioning. If you do not take in a sufficient amount of calories each day to allow the body to maintain all of the systems of the body then body decides which functions it must maintain and which it can live without. Puberty is a function the body can delay and function normally without having to select a system to shut down.
If you were to lose any more weight your body will have to decide, if there insufficient body fat to draw on, to shut down a system so as to maintain the most important systems. Most likely that system would be the kidneys. What follows if there is still insufficient calorie intake the body shuts down the liver, then lungs, then the heart and finally the brain and the body dies. This is how a person with anoxia dies.
My suggestion is you see an internist doctor. Have your hormone levels checked to see if you have entered puberty. While I do not believe you have an eating disorder, you should be evaluated for one to find out why you are unable to gain weight. The doctor may recommend fortified drinks to increase your calorie intake so you gain weight.
In a sense you are similar to women Olympic athletes. Because they train as hard as they do they cannot take in enough calories to replace what they use while training? While they are in training they do not get their periods and their development is stunted. When they stop training puberty hits then like a ton of bricks.
My uneducated thinking is this is your problem. You are not eating enough to replace the calories you use each day. I don't believe you have a true eating disorder but you need to be evaluated for your own best interest. Once you start gaining weight puberty will start and things will happen fast. See a doctor, my suggestion that doctor be an Internist and ask the right questions.
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I just finished watching a documentary on girls who have 'Anorexia Nervosa'. And it covered girls aged 12 thru 16 at a treatment center meant to help them gain weight because their weight was so low that they would die soon if not for medical intervention of a pretty much forced feeding program while teaching them at the same time to break their habits. Many of them had a period once but it stopped when their weight got too low. When the body is under any regular mental stress, a period becomes delayed, that happens in the life of all women but its usually a delay of a few days, a week maybe two at the most.
However physical stress to the body can make a period stop. There are two examples of it, when a gal who is an athlete gets so much exercise stress to the body on a daily basis that her period will stop and the other, when the body is stressed due to being in starvation mode and the period stops. Or depending on the age of the person, it simply doesn't start at all.
I will say it is not normal for a growing teen to not feel hunger. You are correct that it may not exactly be a eating disorder, that causes you to not eat because on going clinical depression, untreated can do the same. Otherwise, for any other reasons where a person may not have any appetite, only a Dr. would be able to name them. I think its time to see your Dr. again and let him know you have no appetite what so ever so they can test to see what is wrong. Your body needs the fuel of food to run properly and it would include to develop normally.
At your age, you should have a period and depending on the genes you inherited, you should be getting close to the size of chest that you will have for your adult life. Unless there are many flat chested adult women in your geneological history, your being the same size as 5th grade with zero growth there at all is in indication something is wrong. Its not that your body is unable to develop but that it is not getting what it needs to develop. So talk to Mom, ask to see the Dr. If Mom won't take it seriously, then talk to the school nurse and ask for help. talk to an Aunt or Grandma and ask for help. Puberty is a phase, it starts with the development of breasts and changes inside you cant see, and eventually girls feel the effects of their hormones on their emotions and lastly start a period. So there should be some things that you become aware of before a period starts, as that is usually the last major change. Periods start early at 10-12 for some, 13-14 is where the average amount of girls start, and 15 isn't too bad if there has been some breast growth at the least. Otherwise, 15-17 would be the very late bloomers and are seldom seen in todays time. The only way for you to know if you are truly okay or not is to see your doctor. If lack of eating was not in the equation, I'd say you're likely a late bloomer and perhaps if mom is a tiny slight boned petite person with little chest, that you are merely just like her. But lack of appetite is a serious thing. Its like never putting oil in the car. A car if it runs out of gas, wont run. If it has gas but no oil, the engine parts freeze up and it stops working totally. That happens to humans too dear. Our body needs a certain amount of daily nutrition to run well and to grow and stay healthy. If someone handed you a canvas and a paintbrush but no paints and expected you to create a painting, could you create one without any paint? What if all the paint tubes were almost empty, not enough paint to cover even a quarter of the canvas, could you create a painting? Not even the best artist could create one. This is at least one main reason why you are having the issues you have with the delay of puberty but there may be others. Go see a doctor right way dear. I'd like to hear how things go if you remember to let me know what you find out. Good luck.
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