Dear Cathy

Stress is a very difficult concept to quantify and in my opinion far to many fertility issues have been blamed on stress unnecessarily. Whilst it is accepted that prolonged physical and emotional stress may ultimately lead to raised persistent cortisol levels, as well as elevated endorphin levels, these have been extremely difficult to quantify in clinical practice and therefore is not always a scientific basis for such an assumption.
As to the issue of ovulating at the time you were expecting to menstruate, I would believe that this is unlikely and that a hormone imbalance has occured which needs to be confirmed by your gynaecologist. The gynaecologist should more specifically look for the presence of an ovarian cyst which often accompanies symtoms.