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

Completely agree.

We are meant to be pregnant or breastfeeding most of the time.

years of uninterrupted menstruation wasn’t what nature planned

also girls start younger these days, a century ago the average age was 16

Sadly - I've had the Mirena put in a few years ago and it hasn't made my periods better at all :( I'm 43. I asked my OBGYN (begged, really) to do a hysterectomy or, at the very least, a tubal ligation, but she refused, said I might still want children (past 40??? no) and promised me that my periods would get a lot better - if not stop altogether - after I had the Mirena IUD put in.

Unfortunately for me, the Mirena did nothing. My sister (49) takes Myfembree and says she hasn't had a period in a couple of years. You're not supposed to take the Myfembree longer than 24 months straight due to the risk of bone density loss, but my sister doesn't care and has been on it for 5ish years.

I am full on ready to be done with menstruating. I had my first period at age 11. My periods have always been painful and long, plus I get hormonal migraines around menstruation times. I have never had any children, never wanted to, and don't plan on having any. Wish that we could at least flip a switch to turn off that whole system down there if we weren't planning on using it ;)

If there is a god, and I ever get to meet her, I will be having words ..........

You'd better hope your god doesn't have PMS when you finally get to meet her, or you could just face eternal damnation!!

tread carefully then, like the rest of us mere mortals ;)

Yanbu. My periods got heavier but less painful with each pregnancy I had but now they are painful again.

There are actually some fascinating books that cover this! I’m trying to remember the name of a really good one I read, ‘of women and water’ or similar. Due to dietary constraints, lower body fat levels etc, a woman would only have had the opportunity for a period 2-3 times a year. Add in a lack of birth control, and the fact that all women who could nurse their child had to do so due to a lack of viable alternatives, and a woman might not even menstruate once a year. People were still aware of 28 day cycles (see Margaret Meade on prehistoric calendars), but once a woman had her first child, menstruation would become less common.

However for many, childbirth cures the pain of periods.

So your theory just doesn't stack up, unless you also 'believe' (and this is all just a belief of yours, it has no basis in reality) that childbirth also removes stress, pollution, sleep, and toxins and promotes a better diet and more exercise and makes all the wrongs right.

Which it doesn't...

I wasnt talking about hormonal contraceptives.

I was talking about tranexamic acid which is prescribed for heavy periods.

It drastically reduces blood loss out of the body during periods

I was given the 'It'll be fine once you've had a baby!' when I was a 20 yr old student in the early '80s. Not exactly helpful.

Was diagnosed with endo when I was 40.

Yup. When I visited family in Eastern Europe, periods simply weren't discussed. The one time I used the word for 'period' in front of my younger cousin, she was dreadfully embarrassed.

And don't even get me started on why we need to go to the toilet!

Because nature really doesn't care if we are uncomfortable.

Yes, I forget that dogs aren't people. I asked the vet if I could use optrex on my dog and he said 'no, they're not humans' obviously he was lying but I conceded. Calpol is a no no too 🙄 even when they're babaies.

I think if dogs weren't pets and just living in the forest on rats and squirrels they'd only live a couple of years.

I started aged 12. Started 2 weeks before we broke up for the summer. Didn’t get a period during the holidays, 3rd day back, I had my second. I fainted at school.

Then for 9-10 months, I was in agony with crippling period pain 3 days before the bleeding, then for the first 5 days. I had to change night time pads on the hour.

I had to have at least 4 days off school per month. It got to the point that needed off school for longer as school had these rules 1. One way system and 2. Each school year was given a toilet block to use. Most lessons changes didn’t involve me walking past the toilets normally. You got a serious telling off. Even a girl that was about to vomit, ran to the nearest toilets to the classroom, got a telling off for using the wrong toilets! I bet she would have been told off if she was heading in the direction of the right toilets and threw up in a corridor!

I couldn’t cope with being unable to function properly for 7-9 days a month. I went on the pill aged 13. I still got periods but didn’t last as long the reduction in pain was life changing. No idea what would be the next step if the pill didn’t reduce pain and excess bleeding.

I agree that human females don’t need have a menstrual cycle every month. Maybe 4-6 times a year

They would have been pregnant or breast feeding most of the time.

Yes, I've heard that argument a lot. However, that could not have been a continuous process. Although, certainly, it would have resulted in fewer periods over a lifetime.

I used to have painful periods until I cut out ibs triggers from my diet. I followed the fodmap diet due to bowel issues and the excellent unexpected side effect is no more period pain after 20 years

tranexamic acid still does not cause blood to be 'reabsorbed' as your OP suggests. It stabilises blood clots that form at the 'open ends' of capillaries as the uterine lining is shed and therefore can help to reduce fresh blood loss.

Although Queen Victoria was almost continuously pregnant but still had painful periods in between. There used to be a packet of marijuana cigarettes in the museum in Chichester that she used to ease the pain. (They were there in the very early 70s but I think they were removed about that time)

I actually got the reabsorbtion information from a thread on mumsnet where a poster wrote that T acid gets the blood reabsorbed. I see she was wrong. Ill correct my post.

So tran acid can reduce all the fresh blood loss. And it gives no ill effects to the body.

So there is no need for us at all to have so much fresh blood loss

I hear ya sister!

I basically feel like shit for half the month every month. I get PMS 10 days before my period where my boobs and nipples are hard, swollen and really sore. I also feel snappy, irritable and emotional. 2 days before my period I get an almighty headache that doesn't piss off until my period starts.

When I am on, I am simply drained. I have no energy and feel totally exhausted, with the occasional cramps and lower back ache. I also want to eat lots of cheese and chocolate so get all bloated.

I feel fantastic for the 10 days after. Then ovulation kicks in which makes my ovary ache and before long it's back to square one with the PMS again.

And I've got menopause to look forward to...

FUN.

Do most of us lose much fresh blood though? it was my understanding that most of us don't lose much, if any fresh blood during menstruation and its only people whose own clotting mechanism does not work properly who can benefit from tranexamic acid.

😂

Tranexamic acid does come with some side effects/risks (including that for some women it can make pain worse by increasing the size of clots in the uterine cavity).

For some women there are definite advantages to using tranexamic acid but definitely isn't the case for everyone.