Congratulations, April. This is a really good sign. It means your body is finally healthy enough to do what it was evolutionarily meant to do - nourish a new life. Not that you need to go out and make a babby right away, or anything, but...

"Ideal weight" is a construct. Your body is just telling you it's okay and you're on the right track. My advice? Keep up the good work and just be relaxed. Don't sweat the details too much.

As you put on weight at the same time that you stopped taking the Omega 3 supplements I honestly don't think you can identify the exact reason as to why your period returned.

I know that through severe dieting I messed up my cycles for a good 6 months in 2010. And that a Paleo diet didn't resolve all my problems.

I have been reading a lot of Paleo Pepper's blogposts recently and think she has a good summary of a lot of variables that can effect your menstrual cycle http://paleopepper.com/ She seems to have had issues with disordered eating also.

Another blogpost which has been incredibly helpful to me is this one: http://huntgatherlove.com/content/womens-set-points. It reminds me that women are not meant to be stick thin. That if you want to be fertile, you need to have a bit of fat on your body.

From a midwife's perspective, the return of your period is a pretty good indicator that you're now not (from an evolutionary perspective) too dangerously underweight to safely have a child.

I've not encountered a particular issue with menstruation and fish-oil supplementation among the women I've provided well-woman care to. Most of them use fish oil supplements without it affecting their period, so I would tend to lean towards the idea that you're no longer so dangerously underweight that you body actually ceased its reproductive processes.

To answer your question about whether this means that you're now at your "ideal weight", I'd say that the return of your period DOESN'T mean that you're not still underweight -- it just means that you're not so far underweight that your body started shutting down any non-vital processes... I hope that makes sense.

curious about the omega 3 thing....reading melissa blog post any other informatioN?

Great news. I had a break through yesterday too. My first period since late 2010. Big relief and big shock. I have been doing acupuncture twice a month for most of last year. Plus on-off paleo last year. I am not underweight by any stretch but I am working through some sugar binge issues. All in all it's hard to pinpoint why but overall I am glad. The doctor was keen for me to take birth control but that would have been a bitter pill indeed. Glad hormones seem to be playing ball. Long may it continue for both of us!