Secondary amenorrhoea

What it is

Secondary amenorrhea is the stopping of menses in a woman who had them before, and the limit is not written the same in every source: two sources give no menses for 3 months if the cycles were regular, or no menses for 6 months if the cycles were irregular, while three pages of a third define it as menstruation that has previously occurred but has now stopped for at least 6 months, with no split by regular or irregular cycles. It is set apart from primary amenorrhea, which is no menses by 16 years of age when secondary sexual characters are present, or no menses by 14 years when they are absent. The ages are not written the same in every source: one gives primary amenorrhea as no menses by 16 years when secondary sexual characters are present and by 14 years when they are absent, while another gives absence of menarche by age 15 in girls with normal secondary sexual characteristics, or by age 13 without them.