Can Stress Actually Delay Your Period? Experts Explain

Plus, what you can do to help keep your cycle on track.

By Julia RiesReviewed by Sanaz Ghazal, MD

February 24, 2025

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My period is, and always has been, very regular, reliably arriving every 21 days. So when it was 10 days late this past September, I freaked out and called my doctor to figure out what the heck was going on. She asked if I experienced any stressful life changes recently—and I immediately felt seen. At the time, my husband and I were uprooting our lives and moving to a new state. Packing all my belongings into boxes, coordinating with the moving truck, and emailing with our new and old landlords (all while working full-time and traveling to visit family) had been seriously wearing me down. I was mentally and emotionally fried.

The most likely reason my period was MIA, according to my doctor? I was stressed TF out—and, as it turns out, stress can, in fact, delay your period. Gabrielle Whitmore, MD, MBS, an ob-gyn at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, tells SELF there is a strong mind-body connection. For example, when you are embarrassed, your body releases adrenaline and you blush. “And when you are stressed, this can change your hormones and mess with your menstrual cycle,” Dr. Whitmore says.

We asked experts to explain exactly how stress messes with menstruation, when to worry about a delayed period, and what you can do to keep things on track.

Stress throws off some key hormones that control your menstrual cycle.

When people come to Dr. Whitmore worried about their period being late, she asks: “What’s going on with your life?” Like my doctor, she wants to know if anything recently switched up their daily routines—maybe a move, a break-up, death of a loved one, or even something that’s also positive, like a promotion. The reason? These kinds of big or overwhelming events cause your body to ramp up production of cortisol—a.k.a. the stress hormone. It’s totally normal to have some amount of cortisol flowing through your body at all times, but when you’re perpetually overwhelmed or anxious, cortisol levels can skyrocket, Dr. Whitmore says.

Having too much cortisol in your body over an extended period of time can disrupt the functioning of your pituitary gland, a pea-size gland in the back of your brain that regulates your progesterone and estrogen levels. “We know cortisol can increase your progesterone levels,” says Dr. Whitmore, “and you need progesterone to drop in order to have a period.” If your cortisol levels—and, consequently, your progesterone levels—are going up and up without dropping like they normally do each month, you can absolutely experience a delayed period, she adds.

When your stress finally dissipates, the amount of cortisol in your body will then plummet, bringing down progesterone levels and triggering your period, says Dr. Whitmore. That is, ultimately, what happened to me. Once the move was behind me and I was settled into my new home, my period returned—and I’ve been back on track ever since.

The source of stress—and how you cope—can influence your body’s response.

During a quick, one-off stressor, like a tense meeting with your boss, your cortisol levels will spike, but they’ll come back down a few hours later (assuming you aren’t continuing to chew over the convo in your head for weeks). The problem with chronic stress—as in, something that’s been bothering you for at least a week—is that your cortisol levels don’t get a chance to decline, says Dr. Whitmore. They go up and stay up.

There are plenty of things that can keep you feeling tense for days. You may be dealing with a highly tense situation—such as my interstate move or, say, a depressing or emotionally taxing holiday season. Or you could be frazzled due to a confluence of factors, such as your job, relationship, finances, and, dear God, politics, Alice Domar, PhD, a health psychologist at Inception Fertility, tells SELF.

Everyone responds to difficult situations differently. Certain individuals thrive off stress, Dr. Whitmore points out, and others are so skilled at coping with stress that something huge would need to happen for their cortisol levels to spike. “There are some people who could be stressed out of their minds and have a perfect 28-day cycle,” Dr. Domar says. “But there are probably more people who, if they’re really stressed, will have an irregular menstrual cycle.”

When should you be concerned about a delayed period?

If your period is only late a single month or two, it’s probably no biggie. Even if you’ve been stressed out for a while, your body will eventually be like, Okay, it’s time to shed the uterine lining, and you’ll get a period, says Dr. Whitmore. (In the meantime, it makes sense to take a pregnancy test to confirm that’s not the reason.)

But if your period’s past-due month after month, it’s time to investigate. You don’t want to automatically assume stress is the culprit because, according to Dr. Domar, there are many things that can delay your period—like excessive exercise, malnutrition, and hormonal birth control.

More seriously, an irregular menstrual cycle could be a sign of a growth, such as a polyp, a reproductive health condition like polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or adenomyosis, or a thyroid disorder. As such, it’s important to check in with your ob-gyn if your cycle’s been off for a couple months. They can run diagnostic tests, like an ultrasound or hormone tests, to see if you have an underlying health issue.

How to prevent stress from delaying your period

While it’s impossible to avoid every stressor in your life (wouldn’t that be nice!), there’s a lot you can do to manage how you respond to stress. And that, in turn, can minimize the impact that cortisol has on your cycle. With that said, here are a few simple tactics that may help keep your stress levels in check (or, at the very least, not chaotically high):

Schedule time for hobbies that make you happy.

Dr. Whitmore regularly coaches her patients to think about what brings them joy in life. Is it going hiking, dancing, walking your dog, doing arts and crafts, or reading a good book? You need to have fun, Dr. Domar says, and not just exercise, go to work, and grab drinks with friends.

Studies have found that people with hobbies generally have lower rates of depression along with greater health, happiness, and life satisfaction. And research suggests that doing a hobby, such as an art project, dramatically lowers cortisol levels. I’ll admit—when I was moving, the first thing I gave up was my hobbies, mainly because I just didn’t have the time. I usually read in bed every night, but instead I worked on my to-do list until I could no longer keep my eyes open.

At a basic level, a hobby takes your mind off the bad in your life—even if momentarily. “When you’re concentrating on a jigsaw puzzle or an adult coloring book, you can’t be thinking about anything else. You’re just focused on the activity in front of you,” says Dr. Domar. Dr. Whitmore’s advice? Find an activity that makes you genuinely happy and try to do it for an hour every week.

Move your body.

Exercise is also a great stress buster. When you move your body—whether that means going for a short stroll in your neighborhood or signing up for an indoor cycling class—your body releases endorphins, which are neurotransmitters that enhance your mood. Again, I messed up. Because I was moving to a new city, I cancelled my gym membership and therefore wasn’t doing my regular HIIT and power yoga classes. That change in my exercise routine probably did nothing good for my stress levels.

Research shows that regularly working out reduces cortisol levels, protecting you from the damaging health effects of chronic stress. Even more, working out prevents you from ruminating by taking your mind off whatever’s going wrong in your life. “If you take a walk and think about literally anything other than what you’re stressed about, you’re going to feel better,” says Dr. Domar.

You don’t need to be a gym rat to reap the benefits. In general, moderate exercise is best, says Dr. Domar. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests aiming for 150 minutes a week, but even taking a 10-minute break from work to go on a walk, stretch, or do a quick HIIT workout can make a huge difference. The most effective workout? The one you enjoy, says Dr. Domar. “If you force yourself to do an exercise you don’t like, you aren’t going to stick with it,” she said. So, find something you're into—whether it be swimming, biking, tennis, or dance—then start slowly and build up gradually over time.

Make relaxation an intentional part of your day.

Another option: Try a relaxation technique such as meditation, yoga, or deep breathing. Research has found that people who regularly practice mindfulness generally experience less stress and lower levels of cortisol.

There are a ton of relaxation techniques available—there’s progressive muscle relaxation, in which you slowly tense and loosen various muscles, and visualization, which simply involves imagining peaceful images such as a beach or the woods. You can just lay down and listen to chill music or doodle in a notepad. Dr. Domar often advises her patients to use an app like Calm, Headspace, Insight Timer—or, my personal fave, Peloton’s sleep meditations. Try to do some type of relaxation exercise for 15 to 20 minutes every day, she says. Not only will this immediately help you decompress, but it’ll help you stay calm under pressure moving forward. “When you relax on a regular basis, on a cellular level, you become less responsive to stress,” she says.

As for me? I’d like to think I learned my lesson—and next time I move (which I hope is never), I won’t forget to prioritize my wellbeing too. Sure, it can be tempting to cancel the hot yoga class or give up your calming bedtime routine when life feels like a little *too much.* But these tools, as simple as they may seem, do a phenomenal job of keeping your mind calm and your body—menstrual cycle included—on track.