When its about that time of the month, menstrual cycles are pretty much predictable in many ways. Women may experience bloating and irritability while others end up with headaches, cravings, and depression prior to the inevitable which is highly not unusual. Menstrual periods come from deep shedding of the uterine lining mainly produced by estrogen and progesterone hormonal levels. Our menstrual cycles actually begin during those early preteen years while still developing into young adulthood. Regular normal blood flow supposedly last a whole week then turning brown, signaling it has stopped for now until the next cycle restarts again.
However, very difficult cramps associated with menstruation can be a major problem as well. If severe, it would cause nausea, diahrrea, even staying home from school and work. Taking aspirin and midol, getting plenty of bed rest, etc will help balance off those awful cramps. Plus, prescribed birth control pills, applying a heating pad to the abdomen and warm baths. The following important changes could disrupt an individual woman’s menstrual patterns, creating a negative interferring atmosphere such as dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia, and metrorrhagia. They all play a role in painful menstruations, anemia, endometrosis, fainting, heavy bleeding, huge blood clot passages, weakness, hemorraging, sharp deep aches in the pelvic and back areas.
Another menstrual aggravation is fibroid tumors, these are benign growths localized inside the uterine muscle . Their numbers do vary for each woman and can grow into the size of an orange or grapefruit. Also, make a woman appear pregnant when she’s not. Those already larger fibroids could further expand by pushing on the bladder, rectum and eventually causing infertility. According to nlm.nih.gov, fibroids usually affect women over 30 and rarely for women under 20, but found to be more common in african american women and has a strong dependence on hormone estrogen. Living with heavy, gushing bleeding is certainly uncomfortable and miserable for any woman. So imagine being at a shopping mall trying to enjoy yourself, but theirs constant worry and wandering whether the blood is showing through your clothing or going back and forth towards the restroom to change soaked pads every 15 to 30 minutes.
Nowadays, their are ways to treat fibroids, the patient has the option of getting a partial or total hysterectomy, surgical removal of fibroids only and/or shrinking them. The onset of menopausal bleeding happens between late 40’s to early 50’s as periods somewhat disappear all together. During the menopausal phase, major interruptions occur llike irregular bleeding, an unexpected bleeding cycle going from light to heavy flow, sometimes lasting maybe 2 or 3 days then fadiing and returning again months later. Food nutrients that can control heavy bleeding and reduce longer periods are oysters, wheat bran, iron rich cereals, orange juice (tropicana and florida naturals), citrus fruits, beef liver, dried fruits, shellfish, cherries, broccoli, green peppers, apricots, fish, lemons, beets, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, carrots, fresh dark leafy green vegetables, tomatoes, peppermint tea, so forth. Taking zinc, iron and vitamin B6 supplements or multivitamins.
For more information go to, nlm.nih.gov, and www.wfubmc.edu/MACHE