Wanting a Baby After 11 Years Without a Period? Alina Is Pregnant and Free From Her Eating Disorder
Rather listen? Jump to the episodeImportant first
This article talks openly about anorexia, panic attacks and losing your period. This is Alina’s personal story, not a guide and not a promise that every path looks the same or takes the same time. Eating disorders are serious illnesses. If you are affected, please get medical and therapeutic support. I’m happy to support you alongside that.
The whole thing lasted 12 weeks and was worth more than all the therapies of the last 11 years.
Alina’s day ran on a meal plan. A spontaneous invitation to dinner? Pure stress for her, because spontaneity was a foreign word. The scale was her best friend, and control felt like safety.
On top of that came food intolerances, panic attacks and a period that simply stopped coming. It went on like that for eleven years. No period, no cycle, hardly any hope, and still Alina never fully gave up.
Wanting a child after losing your period to anorexia: that is exactly where Alina stood when she joined the Food Freedom Academy. She wished for a child while her body had been running on low power for years. And she was sooo unsure: what’s waiting for me? Can I even do this?
Today I’ll hold back and let Alina tell her story, in her own words from the start, after 8 and after 12 weeks. How things went on after that, I’ll tell you at the end. Small spoiler: the title doesn’t lie.
I’m Lina, a state-certified nutrition consultant and health coach for women’s health. I know this pattern not only from working with clients, but from my own story.
What to expect
When control feels like safety
Anorexia, panic attacks, no period: on paper that’s three diagnoses, three doctor’s appointments and three construction sites. Would you believe me if I told you that combinations like this aren’t rare at all?
Imagine your body like a phone in battery-saver mode. If too little fuel comes in over a long time, it switches off everything it doesn’t need for survival right now, and reproduction is pretty high up on that list. The brain can then turn down the hormonal signals for the cycle until there is enough energy again. So the missing period is more the signal than the actual problem.
And a body in permanent saving mode is under stress. That is exactly when many women experience anxiety, compulsions or panic attacks, and suddenly the meal plan on the fridge and the tightly scheduled workout routine feel like the only thing still holding them up. Control gives you safety for the moment, but it takes away the room for your life.
Alina’s start: wanting a child after losing her period to anorexia
At the start, I ask every woman what she wants to let go of. Alina answered without hesitation:
My goal is to get my period back and, with it, to gain weight. That I can let go of the eating disorder more and find myself a little more again. I want to let go of defining myself by my weight, food and exercise.
And how she felt before the start:
Right now I have mood swings, I feel hopelessness, sadness, impatience, fears.
Alina
Maybe you know that wish for change with its bitter aftertaste of fear. “What if …” is something I hear again and again in Cycle Clarity Calls with you.
Ask yourself: what’s the worst that can happen if I focus on my recovery? And what’s the best that can happen?
For Alina, the worst case was: losing control, feeling even more uncomfortable in her body and not being able to accept herself. Her best case: becoming a mum.
Now guess which of these didn’t happen? Correct! None of the worst-case scenario became reality. Quite the opposite.
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After 8 weeks: the scale is at mum’s
I’ve hardly weighed my food at all anymore, except when I wanted to split my yoghurt pot fairly over two days. I gave my scale to my mum so I won’t be tempted. I made myself an evening snack even though my partner didn’t have one. We went to Burger King.
I’ve learned that the people around me value and love me for my character and not for my body. My hormones are working, which makes me feel fulfilled inside and grounded in myself. I can enjoy social contact more.
Alina
I’ve realised that I’m allowed to trust myself and can, and that feelings are absolutely okay.
A yoghurt pot that no longer has to go on the scale. An evening snack even though her partner isn’t eating. A burger at Burger King. From the outside that sounds like nothing special, but for a woman who planned every single meal for eleven years, it’s a bit like driving through a strange city without a sat nav for the first time.
And you? What would your Burger King moment be, the one small thing you don’t allow yourself yet?
After 12 weeks: finishing the Academy with her period
… I noticed that something was happening hormonally. It motivated me so much, especially because I simply noticed how grounded and centred I am. And then I got to finish the Academy with my period. All of this is only the beginning, the beginning of my happy life!
Alina
What this sentence doesn’t say: when her period came back, it wasn’t only joy for Alina. It was exactly what she had wished for so long, and suddenly there was the thought: “Oh God, now I’m kind of healthy. Now I’m soft.” I know this moment from so many women, and it’s part of the process.
Alina summed up her wins like this:
no more weighing meals
no more bathroom scale (it’s now in my parents’ basement)
eating what I feel like
getting to know my body anew
going after myself and my wishes
hormones working → more balanced, more content, more grounded, more hope and, in the end, my period
So the period didn’t come first, but right at the end, after many small steps in which Alina’s body experienced safety again. Your body is not your enemy. It’s just waiting for you to trust it again.
You recognize yourself in Alina’s story and don’t want to go through this alone any longer? In the free Cycle Clarity Call, we’ll look at where you are right now, together.
To the free Cycle Clarity CallWhat Alina writes about the Food Freedom Academy
Absolutely recommended! I took part in the Food Freedom Academy. The whole thing lasted 12 weeks and was worth more than all the therapies of the last 11 years. I got to take my steps at my own pace. I got to learn so much, about myself, about the body. On my whole journey I never felt left alone or pressured. Every success was celebrated by Lina until you celebrated yourself.
The 12 weeks gave me the start into a new life, with all the tools and the understanding I needed so much. I would turn to LT-Coaching (now FemBaLina) again any time. Thank you for everything 🫶
Thank you, thank you, thank you for creating this Academy! I did therapies and every time I thought: ‘Ugh, from one cr… into the next.’ The Academy exceeded my expectations! I started with so much uncertainty – am I doing the right thing? I would do it again and again. I don’t regret a single second!
Alina
The motivation and impulses you gave us, the knowledge … I needed all of it for so long and nobody could ever give it to me.
And today? Alina is a mum
Remember her best case? Alina wanted to become a mum, and today she is one. She is free from her eating disorder, connected to her cycle, and instead of calories she’s probably counting nappies these days.
In episode 106 of my podcast she shares how things went on after the Academy. Her first episode with me, episode 041, is also on YouTube (both in German).
Personal words to finish
I’m crying! Oh, Alina, you can be so endlessly proud of yourself. When your message came that you were pregnant, all I could think was: wow, wow, wow.
Thank you for your trust and your courage to share your story, twice on the podcast and here. And thank you for giving Alina space.
Maybe while reading you thought: “I wish I had my period and my energy back, could finally eat in a relaxed way and had someone who understands me …” Then take that thought seriously.
Having supported more than 250 women, I see it again and again: the path is different for everyone, with ups and downs. But you don’t have to walk it alone.
🎧 Prefer to listen? Here’s the full episode (in German)
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