Her Period Back After 17 Years: Vroni’s Way Out of Her Eating Disorder and Bodybuilding

Vroni had been following me on Instagram for a long time before she reached out. She was sure: “I already know everything anyway. And after 17 years without a period, nobody can help me anymore.”

Even more so after she had been told she would simply have to live with her PMOS (formerly PCOS), her digestive problems and her sluggish thyroid. Full stop.

Today Vroni has her period back. After 17 years, despite PMOS. In this article I’ll tell you how she got her period back after she had already found her way out of competitive sport and restrictive eating some time before. A few years earlier, she had suffered from anorexia. You’ll also learn what we deliberately did not do in our work together, and what else has changed in her life.

Maybe you’re thinking right now: “Good for Vroni. But it’s different for me.” She thought that too.

I’m Lina, a state-certified nutrition consultant and health coach for women’s health, specializing in period loss. I know this pattern not only from working with clients, but from my own story.

“I’m only okay when I perform”

For a long time, Vroni’s life revolved around exercise and (not) eating. Freedom was a foreign word. Numbers were her whole life and control was her safety.

Every meal was planned out, and thoughts about food drove her crazy. On top of that came competitive sport: strict bodybuilding, without which she could hardly imagine her life for a long time, no matter how exhausted she was.

Behind it was something much older than any training plan. Vroni met deep needs, like the need for love and to be seen, through performance, following the motto: if I achieve something, I’m worth something.

Why your period can stop after an eating disorder

Illnesses and the loss of her period didn’t make things easier for Vroni. And honestly: that’s no coincidence, because body and mind don’t work separately here.

Your body doesn’t distinguish between “I want to be disciplined” and “It isn’t safe right now”. If too little energy comes in over a long time while a lot of performance is demanded at the same time, it can shut down functions that aren’t needed for pure survival right now. Reproduction is one of them, which is why your period can stop. Quite often, hypothalamic amenorrhea is behind it.

In Vroni’s case, PMOS, digestive problems and a sluggish thyroid came on top, so several construction sites at once. Her missing period was the warning light, not the whole problem. And a warning light doesn’t go out just because you tape over it.

You can read how exercise and your cycle are connected in my article Period missing because of exercise.

What we did (and didn’t do) together

Vroni was sooo unsure when she joined the Food Freedom Academy. She didn’t know what to expect or whether she could really leave her eating disorder behind. Her biggest wish: to be able to eat intuitively again.

I didn’t make her a perfect meal plan, and I didn’t forbid her to exercise. Instead, we went together to where all of it has its roots.

Among other things, we worked with her inner child, the part of her that had learned: I’m only good enough when I’m successful, athletic and thin.

At first it sounds like that has nothing to do with hormones. But that is exactly the foundation we get to stabilize. As long as every break feels like failure, the body stays in performance mode, no matter how good a meal plan looks on paper.

Your past, but also our society, shape you profoundly. That’s why we look at all of it, to understand what actually throws you off your (hormonal) track.

The facade starts to crumble

Vroni wrote this to me in the middle of our work together. For me, that’s one of the most beautiful moments in my work: when a woman who has only been functioning for years starts to feel herself again.

It still wasn’t a straight path. Her recovery had its ups and downs, and that is allowed to be part of it.

Getting your period back after an eating disorder: after 17 years

And then suddenly this message popped up on my phone, and it completely blew me away. After 17 years. Despite PMOS.

Her body dared to release the brake, because Vroni started to nourish herself better and learned what her body really needs. Today she ovulates regularly.

That doesn’t mean every body reacts the same way or that there’s a fixed timeframe for it. But Vroni’s story shows me again and again how much can be possible when a body feels safe again. Your body is not your enemy.

How Vroni is doing today

What moves me almost more than her cycle: what a radiant, light-hearted woman Vroni is today.

• She exercises out of joy and love for her body, not out of hate and not to earn her food. Strength training? She doesn’t enjoy it anymore.
• She eats intuitively again, sits at her mum’s table and spontaneously has the dumplings too. Without a guilty conscience, without a stomach ache.
• Her gut problems are a thing of the past.
• Along the way, she quit smoking.
• She met the love of her life, got married and is now on a baby mission.

“I have to be strong and function” became “I’m good just the way I am”. Not a number on a lab report, but a woman who no longer wanted to watch her life pass her by.

A year after our work together, Vroni was a guest on my podcast “Happy, Healthy & Confident” once more. In episode 088 (in German) she tells her story herself. You’ll also find the video at the very end of this article.

Personal words to finish

A big thank you to Vroni for her time and her courage to share her story so openly. And thank you for giving her space.

Maybe there’s a small impulse in you right now that wishes to be free. Maybe you wish to have your period and your energy back, or simply to eat in a relaxed way and exercise out of joy.

Having supported more than 250 women, I see it again and again: the path is different for everyone. But you don’t have to walk it alone.