Reasons for Menstrual Period Symptoms

Studies indicate that almost 80% women suffer the effects of menstrual discomforts. The world over women experience some typical symptoms of menstrual period flow. But we first need to know the mechanics behind the activity to understand why these symptoms appear and what makes them such a problem.

Every month a woman's ovaries release one egg into her uterus. This egg stays there , waiting to be fertilized, and after a few days, is discharged from the uterus along with its tissue lining . This was the lining that had been prepared by nature to create a soft, warm cocoon for the fetus that would have been conceived had the egg got fertilised. This is nature's own baby basket and its warm lining.

But when the egg doesn't get fertilized, and is expelled from the body with a bloody vaginal discharge, this is called the menstrual flow. This process is called menstruation. As this blood, tissue and the egg flow out from the vagina, they cause some physical discomfort but most of the pain associated with the menstrual flow is largely hormones related.

Menstrual Period Symptoms

The most common symptom of menstruation is the pain in the abdomen. In many cases this is located at the lower abdomen or lower back area. The pain usually starts from a couple of days before the actual flow starts and is generally referred to as PMS - Pre-Menstrual Syndrome. There are other symptoms that are equally discomforting but until very recently it was dismissed as female drivel , fuss over a pain that is nowhere else except for in the imagination. But science has now established that discomforts and pain during the menstrual flow are not psychological, they have very physical roots. Most of these pains are caused by dramatically fluctuating hormone levels in the body. Whoever said that the ability to give birth would come easy?

The pain or menstrual cramps usually come because during the first five days of the menstrual period, the uterus is contracting in spasms, in order to shed the lining. The pain is a much milder form of what she will experience during childbirth, also a contractions- led activity. The muscle contractions here are cause by a chemical called prostaglandins. This hormone causes the muscles of the uterus to contract for a longer period of time, sometimes depriving it of oxygen. This is what causes menstrual cramps.

Then after 14 days, the hormonal level changes to prepare for the release of the next egg. The hormone levels of both estrogen and progesterone keep rising till about 4 days before the next period, and then, if fertilization has not taken place, they fall. This sudden change causes more irritation and emotional imbalance in a woman. People refer this discomfort to, when they talk about 'that time of the month'.

Around the time ovulation happens there is a pain in the back, abdomen or even dizziness. Just about a week before the actual menstrual period flow starts, the woman may experience bloating. This is water retention on legs and around the middle, sometimes even the face. The other symptoms are breast tenderness, decreased activity levels and lack of sleep. Some women also experience changes in appetite while some others break out in acne. There sometimes seems to be a slight loss of coordination, so many women experience trouble in driving in this PMS state. A woman approaching this time usually experiences attacks of anxiety and social withdrawal. The most common of all symptoms, is irritability or moodiness, depression and angry outbursts. Nausea, headache, gas in the abdomen, indigestion and sometimes even diarrhea are common symptoms and pains of menstrual period. If these pains get more severe than normal, they are taken to be a disorder called dysmenorrhea.

The bad news is that menstrual pain and discomfort does not spare any woman who is in the fertile age bracket, usually between 12 and 51. Class, culture, body type, even race make no difference.

You usually get your period when you start taking the sugar pills, but you can miss your period on the birth control pills for a number of reasons:

• Bleeding is supposed to be lighter when you are on the pill and last for a shorter period of time. Sometimes bleeding can be so light that it's absent or unnoticable. Some women find this helpful, and others find it disturbing. It is not dangerous, but if you find it stressful, talk with your health care provider about a possible pill change.
• Some birth control makes you have your period 3 or 4 times a year. If you don't know, do some research about your birth control or ask your health care provider.
• Not getting your period could obviously mean pregnancy. If you've missed pills, or if you have symptoms of pregnancy, take a home pregnancy test.
• If you threw away the placebo pills (sugar pills) and started your next pack immediately, skipping your periods is normal.
• If you're on the progesterone-only pill (e.g. Micronor or Nora-B), not having withdrawal bleeding is normal.
• There's no danger in starting the pill for the first time in between period, but it might increase the risk of having no withdrawal bleeding at the end of the first pack.
• If you missed a pill or two and then doubled up, you can have a late or missed period, even though you did the right thing.

To be accurate, you do not have periods while using combined birth control pills; instead, you have a withdrawal bleed because you're no longer putting the hormones in your body.
It shouldn't it should just regulate it.

• My advice is to buy the Clearblue Fertility Monitor and or ovulation predictor strips to detect the LH surge. The LH surge is a hormone that surges about 36 hours before your egg pops out. Intercourse on that day increases chances of pregnancy dramatically.

• On average a women ovulates about two weeks before her period starts.

• I ovulate about 20 days after the start of my period and I think all women should know. I have ovulated as early as the 16th day. I highly recommend the Couple to Couple League (http://www.ccli.org). It is a catholic thing because they don't believe in birth control, but if you can get past the preachy stuff it is really helpful in learning about how your body works.

• The ideal way of knowing when you ovulate is to purchase ovulation kits from the chemist and/or supermarket. Generally women ovulate between days 12-18. The kits have 5 testers in them, sometimes you may need to purchase two kits to know exactly when your body is ovulating if your cycles are irregular.

• If you have an irregular period, then it is hard to predict when you ovulate. Being irregular means you could ovulate 2 times a month, have 2 periods a month, or like 2 periods a year. Physicians suggest that you should not try to predict your ovulation day if you're irregular. I have an irregular period because my cycle length is not the normal 28-day length, instead it's either, 25, 26, 27, or 29 days. For May, it was 29. April, it was 27. March, it was 26.

• The easiest way to tell if you're ovulating is to check your vaginal mucus. Having a vaginal mucus that is clear, slippery, and stretchable when pinched with two fingers means that you're ovulating. If you have a thick, non-stretchable, egg-white vaginal discharge, then chances are you're not ovulating or you could be having a yeast infection, STD, etc.

• It is not particularly difficult to tell when you are ovulating---the cervical mucus is more abundant, clear, and stringy. Non-fertile day mucus is scanty, cloudy, and tacky. You can tell the difference on toilet paper if you pay attention. You get fertile mucus for a few days before you ovulate, to assist sperm in getting past the cervix and into the womb. If you avoid making love during the fertile mucus times and for three days afterward, you will not get pregnant. You can have fertile mucus more than once in your cycle.

• They sell ovulation tests in most drug or grocery stores.

• You can purchase an ovulation test kit that is available from a pharmacy/chemist. It usually contains about five tests.

• My best advice and what worked for me is to start with the earliest days..for instance next month start using the ovulation predictor 12 days before last months period (it don't matter if you have irregular periods) began and chart from there. You will more than likely get a positive reading sometime during that time. Hope that this helps!!

The last one to answer this was so wrong. Women were smarter than to just "sit in a hole for a week." So here's an improvement.

Ancient Egyptians used a compress of linen with a sponge on top, like a pad. They also had internal menstrual protection of rolled cotton or papyrus. Yep, that's right: tampons! If the woman had strange pains of other indications that the bleeding was unnatural, there were many herbal remedies a doctor would blend, wrap in linen, and use as a suppository. Basically, a tampon filled with herbs and honey. How nice!
The ancient Greeks invented tampons made from lint wrapped around a small piece of wood, recorded in writing by the famous Hippocrates in the 5th century B.C.

Israelite women had a really hard time. They were considered "unclean," and anything they touched or sat on was unclean.

When a woman has a discharge and the discharge form her body is blood, she will remain in a state of menstrual pollution for seven days. Anyone who touches her will be unclean. Anything that she lies on in this state will be unclean; Anyone who touches her bed must wash clothing and body. If a man goes so far as to sleep with her, he will contract her menstrual pollution and be unclean for seven days. Once she is cured of her discharge, she will allow seven days to go by; after that she will be clean. On the eighth day she will take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. The priest will offer one of them as a sacrifice for the sin and the other as a burnt offering." (Leviticus 15:19-30)

Seven days unclean, then another seven days had to go by after she was "cured." In a cycle that took place every 28 days, that meant she was "clean" only half the time. Because of this, the women were secluded during their period. They didn't have much, so a couple yards of linen was used to absorb the blood, which then had to be washed out by hand. This horrendous hassle is what gave menstruating women a bad reputation throughout the Dark Ages and even up until the Age of Enlightenment.

Women in the Middle Ages also made tampons. Cotton was easy to come by. They would roll these into a suppository with a string attached from the cotton "tampon" to their upper thigh, believing that if they didn't, the tampon would float up and lodge in their uterus.

Here's an herbal recipe:

Take half a drachma of triacle diatesseron, the same amounts of cockle flour and myrrh, and grind them together with bull's gall in which savin or rue has been rotted. Then cover the mixture with cotton and thereof make a suppository as large as your little finger and put it in your privy member, but first anoint it with clean honey and oil together, sprinkle powder of scammony on it, and put it in the privy member; one can do the same with lupin root, and that is much better.

Of course, this sort of weird concoction made the woman bloat badly.
Many cultures used different ways to help a women during "that time of the month," but usually the cure was the same as today: a tampon of cotton or cloth, or a dressing of linen like a pad, with herbs to take care of the pain.

They did not simply "sit in a hole."

Brown vaginal discharge can also be a symptom of some serious medical conditions.

You have some spotting when you ovulate and before and after your period. This is pretty normal. This pinkish/brownish color is blood and there is so little that it just tints your discharge. Spotting is very normal for both of those times during the cycle.

Also it could be implantation bleeding where the egg implants into the uterus, that is if you are sexually active and have not been using protection.

It could be Implantation bleeding sign of pregnancy or just a problem which is nothing to do with pregnancy. Go and see a doctor.

Spotting before periods in women over 30 can also indicate the beginning of perimenopause. When spotting appears 2-3 days before the periods are due, it can indicate that the corpus luteum is breaking down too early causing the luteal phase to be shorter than normal. Perimenopause spotting is cause by sudden drop in estrogen levels and low progesterone production due to anovulatory cycles. If a woman is trying to get pregnant and her luteal phase is shorter that 10-12 days she may suffer an early miscarriage. Other possible causes can be cervical dysplasia, endometriosis, fibroids, polyps, UTI, yeast infection, STDs, etc.

If a woman has a IUD, this can also be the cause.

Making a doctor's appointment to discuss this situation is a very good idea in order to get proper diagnosis and treatment.

I'm 17 and due to the contraceptive implant I had a period that lasted from the 5th November 2011 until July 31st 2012, believe it or not. I bled every single day non stop throughout those dates. On the 31st I got the implant removed and I was period free until August the 2nd(today) So only 2 days and now it's back. I just want to crawl into a cave.

I believe I deserve some form of world record.

I used 2 boxes of tampons every week, someone should calculate how much I spent. (£3 for 1 box haha)

Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) is rare but still thought to effect 1 in 700 women.

Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) is caused when certain strains of bacteria multiply and start to produce TSST-1 toxins, these toxins enter the bloodstream and if the person lacks antibodies then the TSST-1 toxins overwhelm the immune system - this leads to something similar to septic shock, initial symptoms include high fever and low blood pressure but long-term it can result in organ failure.

Tampons account for 75% of all TSS cases - in particular rayon tampons such as Tampax, Playtex, or Kotex (cotton tampons have never been associated with TSS) - this is because tampons provide bacteria with the perfect environment to multiply, effect vaginal pH, prevent vaginal cleaning, and damage vaginal tissues giving TSST-1 a more direct route into the bloodstream.

Tampons can also risk;

• Increased menstrual cramps (as a result of expanding into the cervix).
• Increased bleeding (as a result of damage to vaginal tissues).
• Vaginal infections (as a result of bacterial growth).
• Irritation or allergic reaction (as a result of chemicals in rayon tampons).
• Dioxin exposure from rayon tampons, risking endometriosis and cancer.

Frequent Irregular Periods

I am not a doctor, but this is from a website - can I recommend that you see your doctor? Abnormal bleeding (either heavy bleeding or bleeding between periods) can have many causes. Bleeding can occur from the vagina secondary to trauma, infection or cancer, and can be diagnosed with cultures, pap smear or actual visualization of a lesion. The cervix can bleed abnormally also secondary to fibroids, infection, polyps or cancer, as is the case with the uterus. Ovarian and other estrogen producing tumors can also cause abnormal uterine bleeding. I?m sure you noticed that cancer appeared several times in this list. Although it must be ruled out, it is not the usual diagnosis with abnormal uterine bleeding.

Here are more answers from other FAQ Farmers:

• Irregular periods can also be a sign of endometriosis. This is a nagging condition that can cause dull pain (like mild menstrual cramps) or intense pain (like being jabbed with a knife). It can also cause irregular bleeding, pain during and after sex and pain with urination. Mention it to your physician if the symptoms persist.

IT CAN BE BECAUSE OF POLYMENORRHAGIA . SOME WOMEN WITH PCOD SUFFER WITH THIS. AND IT MAY BE A SIGN OF MENOPAUSE OR ENDOMETRYOSIS OR TUMOURS.

There are many factors which are responsible for irregular periods:

• A woman can have irregular periods due to significant weight loss or weight gain;
• Over exercise can also result in irregular menstruation;
• In some cases increased stress is cause of irregular menstruation;
• Poor nutrition and diet which is rich in carbohydrates is also related to hormonal imbalance and menstrual disturbances;
• Some drugs can also cause irregularities in menstruation;
• Many women who are smokers experience irregular periods;
• Some eating disorders like bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa also cause menstrual cycle irregularities.

No, there is nothing that you can do to reach menarche (first period) earlier.

You will only start to menstruate once you reach an age where your body is mature enough to start ovulating. You can't force your body to mature any more than you can force your body to grow an extra foot in height overnight. Your body will mature in time as it's supposed to, you can't change that.