Irregular Periods: What Causes Them And Are They Harmful?

While for every woman menstruation isn’t a fun time of the month, they realise that it is an important process. When, one month, it suddenly doesn’t show, it highlights the importance even further. What are the causes of irregular periods and do they signify a problem? In order to understand why this happens, we need to have a good understanding of the menstrual cycle as a whole. During a woman’s fertile life, the eggs that are released in a menstrual cycle mature within the ovaries in a cycle that typically lasts 28 days. This does vary between women though. On day five of the cycle, about twenty eggs begin to mature in the follicles of the ovaries. Each follicle is like a small fluid-filled sac, and as day fourteen approaches one follicle has generally matured earlier than the others and releases an egg to be fertilised. The other follicles shrivel up and absorbed by the body again. But the mature follicle transforms into a corpus luteum, which produces the hormone progesterone to prepare the uterus for a fertilised egg. If the egg isn’t fertilised, it disintegrates and dies. And the corpus luteum also withers away. This leads to the uterus shedding its lining, which is the bleeding we associate with menstruation and periods.

A regular menstrual cycle means that the interval between periods is consistent, which as previously stated lasts around 28 days. It can however range from every 20 days to 35 days. An irregular menstrual cycle means that those intervals between periods varies each month, so sometimes they may be 28 days and others may be 20 or 30. Irregular periods are very common and there are a number of causes for this to happen. For example, in teenagers, it is the imbalance of hormones – it is normal for girls to experience irregular periods because of this or for a period to not arrive for a month. However, it is important to remember that a period not arriving is usually a sign of pregnancy, so if you’re sexually active then you should check that you’re not pregnant. The most common causes of irregular periods are eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia; excessive weight gain or weight loss, which can both lead to an irregular menstrual cycle or for periods to disappear completely; stress or emotional problems; hormonal problems such as thyroid malfunctions; travel; over exercising; breastfeeding; drugs such as birth control pills, or problems with pelvic organs.

 

Irregular periods or the stop of your menstruation can also be due to a condition called premature ovarian failure, which can lead to women stopping their periods before the age of 40. This can be because of a number of problems, including radiation, surgery or chemotherapy in the case of a woman with cancer. But if you don’t want to get pregnant and are sexually active, you should use a birth control device  that you can trust so that you know  irregular periods aren’t to do with pregnancy. But if your periods do stop for whatever reason, don’t think that you can’t get pregnant – you will still be at risk! It’s important to still use a contraceptive if you don’t want to get pregnant, such as a condom or the birth control pill. If you’re worried about your periods for any reason, or think that there may be something wrong, you should speak to your GP as soon as possible for advice and testing, if need be.

Categories: Birth Control, corpus luteum, cycle means, irregular, irregular menstrual, Irregular Periods, menstrual cycle, Menstruation, Periods, sexually active, Women

Do Girls Who Start Their Periods Early Have Sex Early?

When a girl starts her period, it is a sign that her reproductive system is kicking into action. She may have started to ovulate, and this is great news for her future wellness and wellbeing. It can be a worry for some parents, however, as they fear that their daughter’s sexual health is now an issue, and that she may be more inclined to proceed with a physical relationship. This can be even more of a worry when girls start menstruating earlier than their peers, as some fear it is a sign of early sexual maturity.

 

They will be reassured, then, by a newly published study that shows that girls who start menstruating earlier than average do not have sex any earlier than their peers.

 

This study was carried out in Australia, looking at data from 554 girls who were followed throughout their childhoods. Those that started having their periods before they got to age 12 did not start having sex any earlier than the average age for the group.

 

Around 25 percent of the group who started their periods earlier had had sexual intercourse by the time they turned 15 years old, which was actually slightly lower than the 29 percent of girls from the group that had started their periods at an average time. Most girls start their periods when they are 12 or 13, but the span of what is normal can vary quite significantly.

 

The study confirms that physically maturing earlier does not in any way indicate that a girl is likely to start initiating sexual behaviour. This is contrary to previous studies, which had appeared to link early menstruation to earlier sexual encounters, but those studies all focused on women who were recalling their experiences as opposed to date from girls who were actually going through menstruation and early sexual encounters in the course of the study.

Categories: Age, Menstruation, period

What Everyone Ought to Know About Sex During Periods

During menstruation, many people do not feel sexual at all and so refrain from having intercourse. Others may worry that their wellness and wellbeing may be compromised by having sex when they are on their periods. This feeling can come from folklore, tradition or religion, or simply a feeling that it is ‘not right’. In some traditional households, women are not allowed to pray, touch anything holy or go anywhere that is thought to be ‘near God’ when they are menstruating.

 

Nevertheless, many people do not fully understand about having sex during their period, and wonder if intercourse during their period means that they will not fall pregnant. In truth, the chances of falling pregnant during your period are minimal, because your body is shedding the lining of the uterus, and even if the unfertilized egg happened to be present, it would be unlikely to stick. The hormones are not generally conducive to pregnancy during your period, either. This does not mean that it is impossible, however, and you should still take every precaution to make sure that pregnancy does not occur. You are also even more susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases during your period, making condoms even more of a necessity.

 

Many women suffer from painful cramps and bloating during their periods, and may also suffer from mood swings. This may make sex the last thing that they feel like doing, and that is perfectly normal. It is interesting to note, however, that sex when you are on your period is actually more intense, as your sexual organs are engorged, leading to increased sensitivity and better orgasms.

 

IF you do have sex whilst on your period you may find that the contractions of the uterus and the hormones in the semen cause your period to ‘speed up’ and that the whole thing is over much quicker than you might expect.

Categories: Menstruation, nbsp, period, Periods, Sex, suffer, uterus

Period Pain: How “Going Green” Stops You “Seeing Red”

When you’re on your period, a whole host of symptoms can affect your wellbeing and make you feel like bursting into tears or chucking plates at the wall. One of these lovely symptoms is breast pain, but at least with this one you may be able to find relief – with the help of your diet.

In the 70s cyclical mastalgia (breast pain accompanying your period) was dismissed as ‘merely an expression of psychoneurosis.’ If you were one of these unlucky women, breast pain wasn’t to do with physical wellness. Oh no, women with breast pain were labelled ‘frustrated unhappy nulliparae,’ which meant they were just upset that they hadn’t given their husbands children yet. Poor loves.

Luckily, now we know different. Not only is breast pain all too real, but it can be severe enough to interfere with daily activities. About 60 to 70% of women experience some type of breast pain at some stage of their lives, which is severe in 10 to 20% of cases. However, while it’s normal to feel some tenderness in your breasts during your cycle, it’s not normal to experience breast pain – at least, not in other parts of the world.

In Asian countries, where the average diet is lower in fat than in the West, as few as one in six women suffer from breast pain in their lifetimes. Further, women eating traditional plant-based diets all their lives, like rural Bantu African women, have lower prolactin levels (a hormone which women with breast pain tend to have high levels of). When these women spent a few weeks eating a Western diet — involving meat, butter, milk, eggs, bread and sugar —they experienced a significant rise in prolactin, so we know it’s not a genetic thing.

Since then, researchers have undertaken a “crossover” study, in which meat-eating women went on a plant-based diet for two cycles, and then were told to switch back to their regular diet with some placebo supplement to show changes before and after dietary improvement. However, the researchers discovered a problem; several participants felt so much better that they refused to go back to their regular diet, violating the study protocols. Yet the researchers concluded that a plant-based diet may offer relief from breast pain, as well as ‘significant reductions in menstrual pain duration, pain intensity, and duration of premenstrual symptoms related to concentration, behavioral change, and water retention [bloating].’

Categories: breast pain, Menstruation, plant-based diet

How Menstruation Affects Your Insulin Needs

As if you didn’t have enough wellness needs to be worry about during menstruation, oestrogen and progesterone, which are the hormones that control your menstrual cycle, also affect your blood glucose levels.

According to Jay Cohen, MD, medical director of the Endocrine Clinic in Memphis and clinical assistant professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Tennessee, ‘Two or three days before menstruation, as oestrogen and progesterone levels are changing, a number of women — but not all — will notice that their insulin needs increase substantially because their blood glucose levels are rising’.

If you have type 1 diabetes, it’s important to monitor your levels and adjust your insulin accordingly to manage the surge of these hormones during your period. These levels may rise before your period begins, and decrease just after. Cohen explains that some women don’t experience menstrual cycle-related changes in their blood glucose levels, and others may only see decreases in their blood glucose levels around the time of their period.

Further, girls with type 1 diabetes tend to start having periods a year later than those who don’t have the disease, and the wellbeing of women with type 1 diabetes is more at risk to menstrual problems before age 30. You could have an increased chance of longer menstrual cycles, longer periods, heavier menstruation and an earlier onset of menopause. Cohen adds ‘In women whose diabetes is out of control, high blood sugars can put a woman at increased risk of vaginal and yeast infections, and can also affect regular menses,’ so again, ‘it is important to have good blood sugar control on a regular basis’.

Cohen recommends that you see your endocrinologist in order to put a plan in place to deal with these changes. Your endocrinologist will review the fluctuations in your blood glucose levels throughout your menstrual cycle, and then help you decide what you need to do to keep your blood glucose levels under control all month long. Cohen urges ‘That way, you can prevent those five to seven days of prolonged high blood sugars, which can lead to potential dehydration’ and other complications. He advises that regardless of your method of changing your insulin levels, there is a good chance that you will need to increase your insulin doses for two or three days before you start your period.

How Menstruation Affects Your Insulin Needs

Categories: Diabetes, Information, Menstruation