Can protected sex change a menstrual cycle?
Funny, sex changes my period the opposite way–I used to be freakish and only get my period like, once every 3 months, and when I started having regular sex for the first time with my fiance it made my period regular, almost like clockwork. It coincided with finally feeling like a complete sexual being, in the sense of “potentially on at all times!” for what it’s worth. If we stop having sex for a while I go back to feeling unsexy/asexual and I go back to the barely there period. I have never been able to understand this, and it’s anecdotal, but my guess was it had something to do with a hormonal feedback loop–having sex and releasing and being exposed to pheromones probably set a churn of hormones that I guess is more normal or regular (and certainly makes sense reproductively) fertility-wise.
I’ve only ever slept with boys, but I’m also prone to long periods of celibacy throughout my adult life. It’s been my experience – and it’s supported by some of the studies Chocolate Pickle refers to above – that my cycle does change when I’m having sex with a man on a regular basis. Since I do the serial monogamy thing and have long stretches of closed relationships followed by long stretches of no sex, it’s pretty obvious that my body senses an absence of male hormones in my environment and my cycle changes.
