Bathing during a period

Yep that's what I do

It's not a "belief". It's an observation. No blood comes out when I am in the bath.

And my periods are pretty heavy.

I didn’t say it was?

I belive my period stops (or at least no blood comes out!) because it does, I'm not sure why that's hard to understand? I've no idea about anyone else.

I love a bath, I will literally lie in it for 2+ hours and watch a film / read a book. I'm not a 30 mins and done kind of person.

I do not get blood in the bathwater, it's never happened. I also don't get a lot of pooled blood coming out when I get up, I can get out of the bath, wrap up in a towel and all is fine - I use a bit of loo roll to dry my vulva rather than the towel, in case there's blood, but it's only ever a little bit.

I do bleed if I'm lying down outside the bath - on the bed or the sofa. So it's something about being in the bath rather than just lying down generally that is stopping the flow.

Also, my pelvic floor is shot - so I've not got vice like control going on down there - I can't even run for a bus without peeing myself.

The fact that so many of us do bleed means it cannot be a physical phenomenon as people are arguing. I would argue those people have never experienced very heavy periods as whenever I have a bath on my period its like a scene from Jaws so unless I am weirdly abnormal, it cannot be a universal rule.

They might not believe that it stops, but they haven’t experienced much loss of blood whilst bathing. I know that is true for me.

Been thinking about this thread whilst in the bath!

Brace yourself if of a sensitive disposition..!
I have endo, not usually heavy but painful and clots. A hot bath helps. I actually find when I get a big wave of pain/contraction, a big load of blood shoots out into the bathwater. It's the sheer force of the uterus squeezing it out.

When it's not actively being squeezed out like that, I find I lie in the bath and there's a moment when I relax down there and water goes in and a small amount of blood leaks out. This is the moment, presumably, when not on period that my vagina drinks all the water in! I guess those who don't get the bathwater going in (including me if I just dip in the bath quickly and don't relax) find they don't bleed into the bath because everything is clamped shut down there! And as PP have said, when upright again gravity means the blood leaks out regardless.

I was thinking about this too much in the bath 🤣

Depends on how heavy your period is I guess. It never stopped me having a bath. Would have to be quick when I stood up though!

I've had loads of baths and don't recall much blood, if there was some it would be minor. I used to have a relatively heavy flow. Showers weren't ubiquitous back then so many didn't have a choice!

Quite!
I have apologised in an earlier post!

I have heavy periods and don’t bleed in the bath. Little clots sometimes escape and
kind of ‘cook’ in the water ewww! It takes a while for it to start flowing again after I get out, so I do have time to get my pants and
pad back in place.

Ironic user name, there

What water pressure? Under a few inches of water in the bath, there is negligible water pressure (less than half a lb psi)...

That is not why blood is, or is not, leaking from you whilst you bathe.

Its your anatomy and to some degree, your flow.

Some of us will cramp less lying down in the bath and that'll reduce flow.

Some of us will have a fatter labia/thighs/etc and that will put pressure on the vagina.

Some of us will have a cervix at an angle that when lying down in the bath, lets less blood out.

And if your tampon is absorbing bathwater, it's not in far enough!

Never worked for me, always had to wear a tampon, and often wondered about this 'myth'
Would never try it in a public pool!!

Nope, I said I thought I recalled reading somewhere many moons ago, that it could an evolutionary response, the brain signalling something via increased pressure on the skin. Not parts of the vulva etc 'closing firmly shut' or the like!

Enough now, I have my own evolutionary traits to respond to (tea time)!

You said it was an evolutionary trait! Therefore there must be some kind of signal between the vulva and the uterus to signal it to close because the vulva is wet. Or how else did you think it would work?

My flow is as heavy in the bath as out of it, so I don't tend to have baths while on. The bath is all a bit the death of Marat which puts me off

Like some other posters, my flow gets a lot lighter when sleeping - and it's not the lying down - if I have insomnia but in bed, it's still heavy

With my heavy periods, I'm not lying for an hour, let alone 8!

I never said any part of my body 'knows', and you know it. Merely that there appears to be a difference between immersion in water and not, both whilst lying down.

Because you move around in bed I assume, plus you're lying there for 8 hours or so not 30 minutes

tell us how you think your uterus knows that your vulva is wet?

I'll accept the water pressure is the tell for the body, but it's deffo not gravity!!

If it's gravity, please tell me how I've spent several decades washing out bedsheets plus bath towels of blood from my lying on them with my mega night-time protection????!!!

jeezo no it's nothing to do with that. Please tell me how your uterus knows that your vulva is sitting in some water and how it can close up and stop blood from exiting? It's literally just gravity. When you're sitting down the blood pools in the canal. Then you stand up and it runs out.

I can bathe and don't bleed until the moment I leave the water.
Was under the impression that this is a evolutionary leftover from when we needed to not bleed while in water, so that we would not present ourselves as such a tasty morsel to predators.

Yes, I can ‘free bleed’ at night and just grab some tissue before I stand up out of bed- unless I’m really incredibly heavy the blood doesn’t exit my body when I’m lying down.

But many women I know don’t find this-

I do have a tilted uterus and a high (hard to find) cervix apparently!