7 popular misconceptions about menstruation you need to get rid of

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

It's amazing that so little is known about such a common phenomenon as menstruation.

1. Menstruation is a way to cleanse the body

In fact, the body does not need any cleansing and no toxins are removed with the help of menstruation (we do not have them at all, these toxins).

The most amazing thing is that many women think that every month their body throws something out with the help of menstruation. Maybe someone wants the excess weight to disappear in this way, but menstruation has a different mechanism.

Your period is simply a sign that your monthly routine has ended. During this cycle, a lining grows in the uterus - the inner layer that is needed for the embryo to attach. But if there was no conception, then this layer is not needed.

We throw away or re-donate clothes that we won't wear. Roughly speaking, the uterus does the same: it gets rid of the endometrium that was not useful.

Once the body understands this, the level of hormones that have supported tissue growth drops. Withdrawal bleeding occurs.

2. Painful and heavy periods only pass after childbirth

During your period, do you run for a new pack of tampons more often than for bread? This does not mean that you will have to suffer so much until menopause, even if mom and grandmother had a hard period.

Heavy menstruation is not only genetic bad luck, it is also a sign of certain diseases. Abundant is if it only took more than nine normal absorbency pads. Of course, in real life, no one will wait until the pad is completely saturated with secretions: this is unhygienic. But we can estimate and compare.

By the way, the great folk remedies - I mean regular sex and childbirth - do not immediately solve all problems with menstruation. So if you complain of heavy and painful menstruation, and the doctor advises to give birth, then change the doctor.

3. You can not have sex during menstruation

In fact, you can, nothing terrible will happen. It may be awkward and you and your partner will get dirty. But this does not carry any health consequences.

Do not be afraid that the sight of the blood will make your partner sick. Eventually it replaces the lubricant. If, after all, you are not happy with the prospect of a mess, do not forget that sex is not only vaginal, other forms are just as good.

4. During menstruation, you can not train hard and do exercises with revolutions

Calmly roll over. Movement will not affect your period in any way, and your period will not spoil your workout. Naturally, if you feel good overall.

By the way, regular exercise is the prevention of menstrual pain. Seventy-five minutes of vigorous or 150 minutes of moderate activity per week (total), including stretching exercises.

So menstruation alone is not a reason to postpone a workout. If you are not feeling well, talk to your gynecologist about how you can reduce your symptoms. Weakness during and for a few days after menstruation may indicate anemia.

5. The normal cycle lasts 28 days

The average cycle time is indeed about 28 days. But this is exactly the average, not the norm, because the norm is much wider: from 21 to 35 days.

There is no clear rule of which cycle is good and which is not, because everyone's body is different. Therefore, it is a good habit to track the cycle monthly, that is, always.

To calculate the duration of the cycle, you need to start measuring on the first day of your period, and end it on the first day of the next period. If the cycle is regular (that is, menstruation comes after an equal period of time plus or minus seven days) - this is your norm.

But if you have spotting in the middle of the cycle, if your period comes when they want to, if you don't come at all, you need to go to the doctor. These are symptoms of a wide variety of conditions that cannot be diagnosed at home.

6. Do not swim during your period

This myth comes from a time when there were problems with tampons. A separate reading of the myth: you cannot swim in the sea, so as not to attract sharks with the blood. Sharks, of course, feel the blood, but for some reason they still attack men more often than women. And there is no evidence that sharks hunt women during their period.

In general, you can swim. But if you are going to dive or surf on a dangerous coast, then just in case, plan a dive for days free from bleeding.

7. Menses are synchronized

There is a funny story that women who communicate a lot (friends or work together) synchronize their cycles and after a while, their periods come at the same time. This is popularly called "French brothel syndrome".

Science has not confirmed this, all coincidences are accidental. There are not many days in the cycle, there will be approximately seven days between the beginning of the cycle of two random women. And if you consider that menstruation lasts an average of five days, then somewhere the cycles will intersect sooner or later.