A late period is no laughing matter—a trigger for a flood of emotions whether you’re very much wishing you are pregnant or hoping you’re not. While the reasons for a late period are many, the wrench in your regular schedule is always inconvenient: how are you meant to plan around your cramps, bloating and PMS? No one likes to get caught without a cup, tampon, or pad once the red tide sets in.
We know that health issues like PCOS, low body weight, thyroid issues, and chronic illness can delay or prevent periods from arriving regularly. But is it possible that the main culprit behind a late period is simply stress?
The answer is a resounding yes.
How Stress Affects Your Period
Stress affects our bodies in the same way it did our distant ancestors who frequently had to escape life-threatening situations, says Stephanie McClellan, M.D., an OB/GYN and chief medical officer at Tia. It puts our bodies on “high alert” disrupting everything from digestion to our normal experience of pain.
The reasons behind these systemic shifts are prehistoric. “When the stress pathway is activated, there are very specific commands coordinated by the brain, stress hormones, and the immune system intended to improve the chances of survival,” explains Dr. McClellan.
Among those to get temporarily shut down? You reproductive system. Stress causes a surge in cortisol, which sets off a chain reaction in your body: contact between the brain and ovaries is disrupted, and your period is late or might even disappear altogether. “High cortisol surges can make the uterine lining less receptive to the healthy implantation of the fertilized egg,” says Dr. McClellan, adding that this can also influence your fertility.
You may also notice period cramps feel worse when you’re stressed. “Pain perception is often increased when one is stressed, anxious, or depressed, so period cramps that are usually manageable may feel worse,” says Jennifer Braverman, M.D., an assistant professor at the University of Colorado’s department of obstetrics and gynecology division of maternal-fetal medicine. “Stress also makes it harder to cope with the mood changes many women feel around their periods.”
How to Get Your Cycle Back On Track
If you’re experiencing late or missing periods, it’s important to figure out the root cause of the situation.
“There can be many causes of late or irregular periods, including anovulation (where a woman doesn’t produce an egg each month) or oligoovulation (where a woman produces an egg some months and not others),” says Dr. Braverman. Benign brain tumors (called prolactinomas), obesity (due to the production of estrogen), and being underweight or exercising too much can also affect your cycle in this way.
If chronic stress is behind your temperamental periods, the fix is simple: work on minimizing your stress.
This can of course be easier said than done but Dr. Braverman recommends moderate exercise, warm baths or showers, and plenty of rest. You can also try things like meditation, eating foods thought to help lower cortisol, and practicing yoga to help get your period back on schedule. And that’s one less thing to be stressed about.
Another woman—and a bisexual woman of color, at that—is breaking into the boys’ club of late night television. NBC is filling Carson Daly’s old time slot (1:35 A.M.) with a brand-new show hosted by YouTube star Lilly Singh called A Little Late with Lilly.
According to Variety, the show will debut in September and feature Singh conducting interviews, as well pre-taped sketches and other “signature elements.”
Singh, of course, is excited for this new gig. “An Indian-Canadian woman with her own late night show? Now that is a dream come true,” she said about the news. “I’m thrilled to bring it to life on NBC, and I hope my parents consider this to be as exciting as a grandchild.” Singh rose to fame on YouTube, where she’s known as “IISuperwomanII” and has over 14 million followers.
She made the big announcement on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon Thursday night, March 14. “I’m so excited because I truly get to create a show from scratch,” she told host Jimmy Fallon. “I get to make it inclusive. I get to create comedy segments and interview people and really create something that I believe in. And I’m so honored and humbled.” Singh says the show will be “kind of like my YouTube channel” but joked that now she’ll have more than three staffers.
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The social media love for Singh’s new gig is pouring in from celebs like Janelle Monae, Mindy Kaling, and The Rock, as well as non-famous folks who are happy for more diverse representation on late night.
“My heart is so incredibly full. Thank you so much for all the love and positive energy,” Singh tweeted about the enthusiastic response from people. “I’m speechless. I’m overwhelmed. I need to sleep to process all this. More thank yous to come tomorrow ❤️❤️”
Get excited, people, because the first trailer for Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson‘s new movie, Late Night, is officially here.
The film has been riding a wave of buzz since it premiered at Sundance and was subsequently purchased by Amazon Studios for a record-breaking $13 million. This new trailer sets the scene and the tone (sharp and hilarious, of course) as Thompson’s character, Katherine Newbury, is in danger of being ousted from her long-running late-night talk show. Enter Kaling’s Molly, who provides a perspective that’s lacking in the all-white male writers room. Katherine hopes Molly can help shake things up enough to save the show. “You’re a little old and a little white,” says Molly of her new boss. And Katherine says, “I need your pushiness and lack of boundaries.”
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A story centered on two smart, complicated women making their way in a world primarily dominated by white men? You had me at “hello.” But after watching the trailer, I’m even more excited. Not that I should have doubted the dialogue would be quick (Kaling also wrote and produced the movie) or the performances great (it’s Emma freaking Thompson, who along with being one of our greatest living actors, is also a badass who stands up to sexual harassment). Even better: The movie also has a female director, Nisha Ganatra.
“I think this movie setting a record at Sundance is so important because the leads are a woman over the age of 50 and a woman of color,” Ganatra told Glamour at Sundance. “That, sadly, is radical alone, but there was so much talk of ‘Oh my God, will this make money? Is this marketable? Who will go see this?’ The fact that this movie broke the record at Sundance is so significant and so exciting and so amazing because it validates that you can tell your story. You can tell the story that people don’t think is worth telling, and it will find its audience and people will reward you for it.”
The phrase late-term abortion is everywhere lately. It’s not exactly new, but it’s lighting a wildfire of renewed controversy, thanks to comments from politicians that have led to inflammatory comparisons to infanticide. Naturally, people have a lot of questions, so we asked a board-certified ob-gyn to set the record straight.
The first thing you need to know: There isn’t actually an agreed-upon definition of what counts as “late”—that’s not how doctors talk about abortions. “In medicine we talk about pregnancy in terms of trimesters,” says Jennifer Conti, M.D., a board-certified ob-gyn, fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, and host of The V Word podcast.
This is important. Doctors base their decisions on a precise set of factors specific to each situation—the health of the fetus, the health of the woman, and the exact trimester and week of the pregnancy—not an arbitrary idea of what “late” means. “The way that they have crafted this language on the anti-choice side is strategic,” Dr. Conti says. “It’s meant to intentionally cause uncertainty; when we hear [‘late-term abortion’], we don’t know if that refers to a fetus that is periviable”—which is the very delicate gray area between 20 and 25 weeks of pregnancy when a fetus may or may not survive outside the womb—”or if you’re referring to the third trimester.”
That’s a massively important distinction, Dr. Conti says. Doctors treating a pregnant woman with serious complications at 30 weeks would likely consider a preterm delivery—not an abortion. “That’s a very different situation than 25 weeks pregnant, which is closer to what we traditionally think of as viability, where the fetus has a lower chance of surviving and an even lower chance of living a life that’s not severely impacted by medical conditions,” she says. The vague idea of “late-term abortion” is meant to “conjure up the image of someone in the throes of labor asking for an abortion and ‘evil’ abortion doctors coming and doing that,” she says. “That would never happen.”
The answer depends on where you live. Forty-three states prohibit abortions after a specified point in pregnancy (everywhere except Alaska, Colorado, Washington, D.C., New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont). But exactly when that point is varies by state.
Twenty-three states ban abortions after viability outside the womb—which providers say falls between 24 and 28 weeks. There are exceptions—endangerment to the woman’s life or health, cases of rape or incest, and fetal abnormality—but these also vary by state.
While most states define the cut off vaguely as viability, five states (Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, and Pennsylvania) draw the line at 24 weeks. (Virginia bans abortions in the third trimester, which begins at 27 weeks.)
20 Weeks
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin
Nineteen states ban abortion after 20 weeks, which is before what medical experts have deemed the point of “fetal viability.” This is somewhat confusing since 20 weeks isn’t a significant milestone in fetal development, according to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Instead, many of these laws are based on concerns about “fetal pain,” but experts say pain is not possible at that stage of fetal development.
Immediately after I left the screening of Mindy Kaling‘s upcoming film, Late Night, at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, I texted a friend a glowing, all-caps review: “I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE IT AGAIN.”
For one, it’s an incredibly enjoyable film to watch, the kind of story you want to lose yourself in after a bad day. Kaling wrote (and produced) the film for Emma Thompson, who plays a witty, glamorous, sometimes terrifying talk show host. Kaling’s character joins her writing staff as a diversity hire, but what follows is a refreshing—and, yes, hilarious—movie about mentorship, equality in the workplace, and the value of hard work.
“It’s really easy to slip into a place when you start out in your career where you’re like, I’m just trying to get my foot in the door and I only want to help myself. I’m scared to help anybody else,” Kaling explained at a Sundance Film Festival panel hosted by Stella Artois and Deadline. “And then, as you become more successful, you realize it behoves you to [help others]. The movie is so much about women helping other women, about mentorship and learning how to become a mentor.”
Phillip Faraone
Behind the camera, Kaling and her fellow producers put that into real action by hiring a female director, Nisha Ganatra, and creating a gender-balanced set. The film has even earned the ReFrame Stamp, a mark of distinction formed by Women in Film and the Sundance Institute for projects that have female-identifying people in four out of eight key areas of production.
That’s not the only impressive stat about Late Night, either. Following its Sundance premiere, the movie was purchased by Amazon for a whopping $13 million—a record for the festival at the time, and proof that there is money to be made for female-led productions. So, I sat down with Ganatra after the panel to learn more.
Late Night was purchased by Amazon in a record-breaking deal. What does that mean for you—and for female directors? It’s major.
Nisha Ganatra: I think this movie setting a record at Sundance is so important because the leads are a woman over the age of 50 and a woman of color. That, sadly, is radical alone, but there was so much talk of, “Oh my God, will this make money? Is this marketable? Who will go see this?” The fact that this movie broke the record at Sundance is so significant and so exciting and so amazing because it validates that you can tell your story. You can tell the story that people don’t think is worth telling, and it will find its audience and people will reward you for it.
You were pregnant while you filmed this movie, and during the Stella Artois & Deadline Sundance Series Late Night panel you joked that you wore big sweaters so nobody would worry. I was struck by that—Mindy Kaling has a young child, and this movie has the ReFrame Stamp for gender parity. It’s obviously a female-friendly workplace, so I’m curious why you felt that way?
NG: Well, our culture still treats pregnant women like they are fragile things, and that is not true or fair at all. For me, it was more…as a director, I’m very nurturing and I feel very protective of the cast. I didn’t want them to look at me and think, oh have a seat! Have some water! I wanted them to feel like they could go head-to-head with me and not have to worry about my fragile state of pregnancy.
TV crossover events are usually just a ratings ploy, but tonight’s Big Bang Theory proved to be the exception. The episode delivered a satisfying—and emotional—arc and moved the story forward, something that’s all-too important as Big Bang approaches the last half of its final season.
This episode, titled “The VCR Illumination,” was also the perfect promo for anyone not watching Young Sheldon (the smart, charming spin-off starring Iain Armitage as the pint-size prodigy). In tonight’s episode, young Sheldon pays grown Sheldon (Jim Parsons) a visit via VHS tape, but it’s the appearance of Lance Barber’s George Cooper Sr. (as Sheldon’s dad) that brilliantly links the present with the past.
The episode begins as a continuation from the most recent episode—”The Citation Negation”—when Sheldon and Amy discovered that Super-Asymmetry is inherently flawed and “does not bear the weight of further examination.” It was devastating news for the newlyweds, who had spent the better part of the last year working on their theory.
The passage of time hasn’t helped either, at least when it comes to Sheldon. In the days that have passed, he’s understandably still mourning the loss of this scientific breakthrough. It’s shaken him so much that he starts questioning everything about himself. Asparagus? Maybe he likes it after all. Jazz music? Perhaps it is music to one’s ear. When Amy points out that these are all things he hates, he says, “I thought so too, but I also thought Super-Asymmetry was a good idea, so what else am I wrong about?” (To be honest, I kind of like this Sheldon.)
Amy worries that if he’s re-thinking everything, how long will it be until he re-thinks her? (Don’t be silly, Amy; you’re still the best thing ever to happen to him).
PHOTO: Bill Inoshita
That’s when Leonard remembers that Sheldon has kept an emergency VHS tape in the safe with a pep talk from his younger self. Leonard gives it to Amy, who plays it for Sheldon; and for the first time, viewers see young Sheldon and older Sheldon in the same scene. On the tape, young Sheldon says he’s guessing something bad happened, otherwise why else would he be watching this (“I’m so smart!” grown Sheldon remarks). But as soon as young Sheldon begins to dish out advice (“Never forget, no matter how bad things seem….”) the tape switches to one of George Sr.’s football games. Yep, “taping over syndrome” is a struggle that ’80s kids will never forget. Sheldon is angry; when Amy asks what she can do to help, he barks that she can build a time machine to go back and tell his younger self to give up because nothing is going to work out how he wants.
Leonard and Penny, realizing their friend is full in crisis mode, call in back-up in the form of Dr. Beverly Hofstadter. She says Sheldon needs to grieve and suggests they throw a funeral of sorts. Sheldon thinks it’s a ridiculous idea…until he finds out Beverly made the suggestion.
So Sheldon, Amy, Leonard, and Penny all head to the bathroom for a weird makeshift funeral and end up catching the shower curtain on fire. Prior to that, Sheldon gives a moving eulogy in which he says, “I know this is just a scientific theory, but it was more than that. It described the universe in a new and beautiful way. I want that to be the universe we live in. But I guess it’s not.”
PHOTO: Bill Inoshita
Later that night, Sheldon wakes up to the sound of Amy in the living room re-watching the old VHS tape. She wants to see if she can find anything further from young Sheldon’s speech, but adult Shelton says it doesn’t matter. It turns out he remembers everything he said in the tape. Amy wonders why he can’t just rely on that. “It would have meant more coming from me,” he says in total seriousness. (Can’t argue with genius, I suppose.)
But then, in a miracle equivalent to figuring out a Rubik’s cube, the tape also has a recording of George Sr.’s pep-talk to his players during halftime. On it, George Sr. says, “I know we’re down by a lot, and we’re probably not going to win this one. In fact, we’re definitely not going to win this one. But we’re not going to quit either. And if we do lose, that doesn’t make you losers. You learn as much about who you are and what you’re made of from failing as you do from success. Maybe more. So you can spend the next half feeling sorry for yourselves or you can get out there and give ‘em hell.”
Sheldon’s older brother Georgie (another fun cameo, this time by Young Sheldon‘s Montanta Jordan) makes an appearance as one of the football players and yells, “Yeah, give ’em hell!” But George Sr. says, “You watch your mouth, your mother’s watching!” Sheldon just so happens to pause the tape at the exact moment George Sr. is looking straight at the camera; it’s almost as if George Sr. is telepathically sending a message to his now-grown son.
PHOTO: Bill Inoshita
But just as Amy is prepared to write off George Sr.’s speech as a nice pep-talk that didn’t really work (Sheldon points out that his dad’s team lost that day), Sheldon says maybe it did. “I’ve been acting like the game is over,” he says. “But maybe it’s only half time. There’s a lot more physics left to play.” Amy is impressed. I mean, it is the first time Sheldon’s ever used a sports metaphor, but that’s not all.
”It’s interesting,” he continues. “I always thought that my father’s journey and mine were so different, but he also faced failure and setbacks. Maybe our lives mirrored each other more than I thought.”
This is the point in the show where the sweeping movie soundtrack would start to take over, but we’re not there yet. Amy remarks that from one viewpoint, Sheldon and George Sr.’s lives are asymmetrical; from another vantage point, they’re symmetrical. “Sheldon, what if symmetry and asymmetry are observer relative?” she asks. “That would mean the Russian paper was right…”
By the way, if you’re still following all this science talk, you’re much smarter than I am.
Sheldon realizes that Amy’s on to something big. The Russian paper may have been right—that Super-Asymmetry is inherently flawed—but Sheldon notes that’s only from one perspective. If they look at it from a deeper view with more dimensions, their theory still stands. Not only does it still stand, Amy notes, but, “it might be a bigger idea than the one we were originally proposing.”
Sheldon—overcome by an enormous sense of urgency—tells Amy to run and get her laptop. “We have a paper to fix!”
Then, in perhaps the series’ most touching moment to date, Sheldon looks back at the TV screen—still paused on the image of George Sr. looking straight into the camera—and says, “Thanks, dad. We’re going to give ’em hell.” In just those two lines, Jim Parsons manages to both break your heart and put it back together. And then, in absolute silence, Sheldon turns off the light, walks to the bedroom, and the scene fades to black.
