There are many reasons for a missing period. Your body might answer to stress (both physical and psychological) with a missing period. The physical stress might include illness, for example. Changes in hormone blood levels might cause the missing period, too. The reasons for hormonal changes are various, but given your age (42), the missing period might be a sign of perimenopause.
Perimenopause is the period when the body shifts to menopause. The hormonal changes start and the female sex hormonal production starts to decrease until it is completely stopped in menopause. During this period the periods might be irregular and might change in length, either shorter or longer. The quantity of blood loss might change, too. The periods would become lighter and in time they would completely stop marking the menopause.
However, as previously mentioned, there are many other reasons for a missing period. You might want to visit your gynecologist in order to check if any other reason is causing the missing period.
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