All round

Sophie Turner Reveals She Stopped Getting Her Period For a Year Because of This Reason:

Via

411 HQ

Updated on July 6, 2023

See more articles on:

get top stories via email

Sansa Stark, played by Sophie Turner in Game of Thrones, overcome several obstacles throughout the course of the show’s eight seasons (think being orphaned, held prisoner, regularly tortured, and more). Off-screen, though, Turner was engaged in her own struggles, such as a battle with body image.

The 23-year-old actress has recently spoken out to the media about struggling with an eating disorder and depression. She discusses her problems in detail in a recent interview, adding that she had lost so much weight that her periods stopped.

Turner told The Sunday Times, “I stopped having my period for a year—that’s when I decided to have therapy,” because of intense dieting. The actress also acknowledged that social media significantly impacted her mental health since it was impossible to avoid hearing people’s opinions on how they saw her.

“I was too aware of my body at a young age,” she told The Sunday Times. Turner went on, “It just kind of took over my mind, it was all I would think about. Calorie counting, everything. ‘Oh, I’ll just eat nuts today.'”

Missing three or more menstrual periods in a row is called amenorrhea, according to the Mayo Clinic. There are two types of amenorrhea: primary amenorrhea, when a young woman never has a period in the first place, and secondary amenorrhea, when a woman does have a period that stops being regular, which seems to have been the case for Turner.

Christine Greves, MD, an ob-gyn at the center for obstetrics and gynecology at Orlando Health in Florida, tells Health that one reason a woman might lose her period could be hypothalamic amenorrhea—a condition in which the hypothalamus (a region of the brain) isn’t producing enough gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). This can be caused by a nutritional deficiency, extreme weight loss or stress, or too much exercise, she explains.

GnRH regulates the hormones that make us menstruate, Dr. Greves says, so when levels of this hormone are low, a domino effect begins—causing a drop in other hormones, including estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.

If your body thinks it might starve, she explains, it begins to prioritize survival rather than procreation, which is the purpose of menstruation. “If you’re stressed or not getting enough nutrients—if you think back to olden times, if you’re at war, et cetera—that’s not a time when resources are abundant,” she says. “So it’s probably not the best time to have a baby.”

Eventually, Sophie recovered—and now, she gives a lot of credit to her new husband, Joe Jonas, for helping her do that. (The couple recently got married in a surprise Las Vegas wedding.)

“I think he kind of saved my life, in a way,” Sophie said. According to the X-Men: Dark Phoenix actress, she was going through a tough time with her mental health when she met Joe, but his love and support helped her learn to love her body, and give up extreme dieting. Now, she’s given up the calorie counting, and is feeling healthier for it. Claps for therapy and supportive partners!

Apparently, this is not for the first time when Sophie Turner has spoken about her diet and how it had an adverse effect on her body. In her previous interview with Marie Claire Australia, the X-Men: Dark Phoenix movie actress talked about being pressured by several to lose weight. The actress stated in the past that due to this pressure, she “experienced mental illness firsthand.”

She said she sought therapy, adding, “Everyone needs a therapist, especially when people are constantly telling you you’re not good enough and you don’t look good enough. I think it’s necessary to have someone to talk to, and to help you through that.”