Anovulation can result from a variety of factors:

• Taking birth control pills
• Stress, new environment
• Chronic mental illness, such as depression
• Chronic physical illness, such as inflammatory bowel disease, poorly controlled diabetes, tuberculosis, or anemia
• Undernutrition, specific nutrient deficiencies, inadequate body fat
• Prolonged or continuous physical exertion
• Various pharmaceutical (especially phenothiazines) and recreational drugs
• Hormone imbalances, such as prolactin or testosterone excess (e.g., polycystic ovary syndrome), hyper– or hypothyroidism, adrenal insufficiency or Cushing’s syndrome.
• Pituitary failure or ovarian failure. ^[1]

Some anovulatory women may have two or more contributing conditions. Anovulation can generally be reversed by ameliorating the causal factors (except in cases of permanent pituitary or ovarian failure).

Template:Diseases of the pelvis, genitals and breasts