To wonder why menstruation is the way it is

[Arina22]

I work in a female boarding school with teenagers.

Every week one of them is in terrible pain from her period. It ruins a big chunk of their lives.

I just wonder why on earth periods exist. Especially because if you take a certain medication, it makes the blood be reabsorbed by the body, and the body is totally fine. So there is no need for periods to exist at all

There’s this: https://daytonlab.ucsd.edu/Publications/Hobdayetal97.pdf
but yes, religion put being female under such a burden of shame that there is still little research done today.

Wish I could go to uni and get to research biology now! But I suspect the funding will only go to Viagra and other versions of male entitlement.

Strange that dogs adore eating shit and vom.

I don't think there is enough a lot of Dr's don't even think we can feel as much pain as we do

Ever heard people talk about the care they were given after a csection vrs the care there husband was given after a vasectomy?

They have very different digestive systems to us.

I remember that book as well. Doesn't she specifically mention that she mostly eats white bread and jam? That's not exactly real food.

Lucky you if you only had extremely light, problem free periods and sailed through the menopause.

Not all of us were so lucky. I had horrendous flooding periods for a decade before they finally stopped for good at the age of 57. They were literally like a fast running tap being turned on and the only thing that had a chance of containing them was Tena adult nappies. I was literally housebound for the duration of them each month and nothing helped. The mirena coil even made things worse and I bled for a whole year while trying to wait for it to settle, which it didn't and I gave up with it.

Because they're shit. HTH. So glad I'll be done with it all soon.

Yes, that's true.

Dogs are also scavengers. We are not. What a dog can consider food may bear little resemblance to what humans would consider food. Their stomachs are apparently quite a lot more acidic than ours (which are also fairly acidic, just not in the same league). So most dogs can cope with the crap that they eat.

The period products most women use contain concerning chemicals. Anecdotally, some women find she relief from period pain when they swap to reusable cloth pads etc. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/your-period-products-may-contain-dangerous-pfas-what-to-know#How-PFAS-in-period-products-may-affect-your-health

Then all the seed oils high in omega, 6 (when what we need is healthy omega 3), all the upfs, even the caffeine so many of us drink has been linked to more painful periods. https://public-health.uq.edu.au/article/2024/01/got-period-pain-or-cramps-what-eat-and-avoid

Light exercise and stretching has also been shown to help with period pain.

We're so used to seeing our unhealthy society as normal, but it's anything but. We could do a lot with lifestyle changes.

Of course, for serious medical conditions like endometriosis, doctors need to actually listen to their patients so that they can get the help they deserve.

Sorry, meant to quote @HobnobsChoice

Many parents seem reluctant to start girls on any type of medication for periods for some reason.

If I had a dd I would seriously consider a mirena put in with anesthetic to stop periods

Sorry for posting for the 4th time on thread, but the topic of periods and reproductive health had always been an interest of mine.

For anyone interested, I'd recommend the book 'the 5th vital sign' by Lisa Hendrickson-Jack. Basically it sets out how we should view our menstrual cycle as a sign of how well our bodies are functioning. If our periods are v painful it's a sign that something is wrong. The book also goes into detail on PCOS and endometriosis, giving the latest research on ways we can help improve our health.

Good for you that cutting out sugar and upfs worked for you. but it’s not always related to diet and painful periods have always been a thing, it’s not a new issue. My mother who is almost 80 used to have to book the days of her period off work they were so painful she would feel weak and almost faint. The pain completely went away after she had her first child. Bit simplistic blaming people’s diets.

…..and then we get the menopause which is its own fresh hell. Women definitely drew the short straw.

As far as I know (I looked it up years ago but can’t remember the fine details), most mammals develop thickened uterine linings AFTER the embryo implants. Although the lining does start thickening at ovulation, the material used to thicken the lining is small enough to be reabsorbed.

Humans, on the other hand, develop a thickened lining during every cycle BEFORE an embryo implants to protect the uterine wall. This requires a lot more material, too much to be reabsorbed, so menstruation is necessary. As far as I remember, the advantage of thickening the lining before the embryo implants is that it allows the body to be more selective over the embryos that implant, which is important because animals that menstruate (not just humans, some apes, bats and even a type of shrew have periods) have much higher rates of genetic problems in their embryos than animals that don’t menstruate. So, a thickened lining (for reasons I don’t quite understand) allows us to detect genetic problems in embryos and stop the process of growing a placenta. It’s thought that this evolved because menstruating every month is less physically costly to a woman than growing a ‘doomed’ embryo for longer.

I had terrible period pains as a teenager. All through from 14 to 19 I had to have a day in bed. Then suddenly one day the pain went away, I now only get a dull ache now and again.
I wonder if it’s common for teenagers to get more pain than adults?

In evolutionary terms, you would have spent most of your fertile life pregnant or breastfeeding so we weren’t meant to have years of monthly periods.

You tell her

I used to get really heavy periods ruining any days out. Legs always ached. Post menopause and no pain no moods it’s lovely. The purpose of them is surely reproduction.

remember being confused at first how contractions felt like my period and assumed they’d get worse and it was only ever as bad as my usual period pain! I found it easy
This happened to me too! My periods pre children were really heavy and painful. People said the same to me, so when I went into labour I was expecting to be in agony. Except I rocked up 8cm dilated, panic stations everywhere and I delivered DS1 30 minutes later! They were better after I had him as pregnancy cured my pcos but I haven't had periods in years now due to the Mirena coil or the pill. I font know why people bother with them!

I think about this every now and then since I saw the film where Kate Winslet's character died from doing it. There really should be a way to just get rid of the blood in one go.

I had read this. We aren't 'designed' to have so many periods in a lifetime as we do.

You'd think being all powerful and all knowing wasn't enough. He had to be the sexiest as well.

It's wonderful being post menopausal, it really is. It's made me realise what a literal and metaphoric pain every month was. It's like being 12 again, or a man! Just brilliant.

For human females too it seems that many only tear when giving birth. There's a famous study of teenage mothers who had given birth vaginally who still had their hymens. So being able to identify a woman as a virgin or not with an examination is not really accurate.