Archive for the 'Menstrual Cycle' Category

Do you get your periods more often than every 21 days? Possibly your period can last longer than 7 days.

This kind of irregular bleeding is mainly referred as dysfunctional uterine bleeding.

It is not serious, but it can be annoying and disturb your life. In most cases, dysfunctional uterine bleeding is linked with hormonal changes in your body.

Dysfunctional uterine bleeding can be easily managed with medicine or with hormonal therapy to reduce bleeding.

It can be used either to stop or regulate your irregular menstrual cycle. Surgical treatment is mainly reserved for bleeding that can’t be reduced with hormonal therapy or medicines.

How can you know that it is dysfunctional uterine bleeding?

When you have dysfunctional uterine bleeding, you can experience one or more of these particular conditions:

1. If you are getting your periods more often than every 21 days or farther apart than 35days, probably you might be suffering with dysfunctional uterine bleeding.
2. Actually, the duration of normal menstrual cycle is between 4 to 6 days. But, if you are experiencing uterine bleeding more than 7 days every month, then it surely indicates that you have dysfunctional uterine bleeding.

Every month, it is quite common for each and every woman across the world to deal with the most uncomfortable effects of menstruation.

So, you should be pretty conscious regarding all those certain unexpected or major changes in your body during your regular menstruation cycle.

Toxic shock syndrome is one of the most dangerous yet rare kinds of bacterial infection, which can potentially affect your skin and also the other organs of your body.

Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is quite rare but potentially dangerous bacterial infection which is mainly caused by toxins released by certain bacteria. This toxic shock syndrome is usually associated with the use of super absorbent tampons during your normal menstruation periods. These toxins which are quite potential to cause infection, typically circulates in your blood stream and affects your skin and other organs of your body.

A person with toxic shock syndrome usually develops sudden fever, low blood pressure and also rashes on their skin which can resemble like sunburn. Vomiting or diarrhea, muscle aches, seizures, redness of eyes, throat or mouth and also confusion while making decisions are certain manifestations which are generally associated with this life threatening bacterial infection.

Most of the women, who are actually fortunate, usually experience their monthly menstrual periods effortlessly with few or no concerns.

Your periods can just come and go like a clockwork, starting and ending at precisely the same time every month.

Even though they can cause a very little more than a minor inconvenience, they might not create many complications in your life.

However, some of you can repeatedly experience a host of physical or emotional signs of menstruation, just before or during your regular monthly periods.

From heavy menstrual bleeding to missed periods or certain unmanageable mood swings can interrupt your life in major ways.

A menstrual disorder is actually referred to a physical or emotional problem which can mainly interfere with your normal menstrual cycle. Due to this interference, you can experience pain, abnormally heavy or light bleeding, missed periods or even delayed menarche.

In fact, the menstruation process in women mainly involves numerous structures and organs including your hypothalamus and pituitary glands. Most of the menstrual disorders can instinctively takes place, when certain health conditions or diseases typically interrupt the regular functioning of the reproductive structures and organs of your body.

Understand how menstruation, pregnancy and menopause affect a woman’s sleep and how to minimize these conditions for improving sleep.

Women face difficulty in falling and staying asleep than men.

They also experience more daytime sleepiness. Poor concentration, poor performance at job and school and increased illnesses can result with lack of sleep.

Many issues can affect women’s sleep. Hormone level changes, illness, stress, lifestyle and sleep environment are some of the issues. Some unique conditions such as menstrual cycle, pregnancy and menopause can interfere with quality of sleep in women.

Phases of menstrual cycle and their effects on sleep:

50 percent of women face sleep problems during menstrual cycle. Changes in fluctuating levels of hormones present in menstrual cycle before ovulation, during ovulation and after ovulation can interfere with the quality of sleep.

Understand your menstrual cycle phases:

Before ovulation: Disturbances in sleep can occur before ovulation that is from 1st day to 12th day of menstrual periods in some women. Menstrual period continues for five days. Egg ripens in the ovary after the end of the period. During the period of menstrual bleeding, you will get less sleep.

Are you suffering with heavy irregular bleeding?

Dilation and curettage is the method used to treat heavy or abnormal bleeding during your menstrual periods.

Apart from this, dilation and curettage method is also used to remove the tissues left in the womb after the miscarriages or abortion.

Now-a-days, Dilation and curettage (D&C) is the routine procedure of removing the unwanted tissues from the uterus and it is considered as the safe and minor surgery, which can be performed at hospital or even at your gynecologist’s clinic, provided with necessary equipments.

Dilation and curettage to determine health of uterine:

Dilation and curettage is usually performed to determine the health of your uterine lining and it is also helpful in correcting certain problems in the uterus. There are many reasons to recommend dilation and curettage.

Reasons behind recommending dilation and curettage:

Irregular bleeding: This is one of the common reasons for performing the D&C to you. If you suffer with abnormal vaginal spotting in between your periods, then your health care provider can recommend dilation and curettage to know the exact cause for abnormal bleeding.

Irregular periods are the universal problem that most of the women experience.

About 70% of the women, especially approaching menopause experience the problem of irregular periods.

Self care is very essential to treat the condition of irregular periods. Here are the steps that are helpful in treating minor irregularities in menstruation.

Proper diet:

Diet is the most essential thing that affects your bodies. Eating lots of fast foods means you are not providing sufficient nutrients for your body. Eating sporadically, missing the meals and dieting constantly are sending your body into survival mode.

The bodies which are in starving mode will not cycle regularly, thus resulting in irregular periods. So, carefully watch your diet and eat as healthy as you can. Take the necessary time and prepare the healthiest foods available to you.

The following dietary tips are helpful in treating irregular periods. They include:

• Avoid consuming all the constipating foods, particularly during the last week of your menstrual cycle. Avoid foods like: sour foods, protein rich pulses and fried foods.
• Among vegetables, consume drumsticks, snake gourd, white pumpkin and bitter gourd as these are good for dysmenorrheal.
• Avoid eggplant, yellow pumpkin and potato.

Amenorrhea is the condition when your menstrual cycle stops. It is a common feature which is mostly seen in postmenopausal females.

Amenorrhea is mainly categorized into two types. One is primary amenorrhea and the other is secondary amenorrhea.

How primary amenorrhea differ from secondary amenorrhea?

If you are attaining 16 years of age without ever having menstruated then it can be primary amenorrhea.

This is mostly seen in girls who are lean and athletic.

It is mainly characterized with delayed secondary sexual characteristics like development of breast and pubic hair.

Some times with the normal development of secondary sexual characteristics, menstrual bleeding will be absent. Such cases are also considered as primary amenorrhea.

If you are suffering with abnormal periods that generally stop for six months or more, then this kind of abnormality in menstrual cycle is considered as secondary amenorrhea.

Most of you might think that pregnancy is one of the reasons, but there are many other reasons which can cause amenorrhea.

Why most of you suffer from amenorrhea?

• It is mainly caused due to abnormal behavior of hypothalamus and pituitary gland in most of the women. The abnormality in hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis is the main reason for amenorrhea to occur.

“Dysmenorrheal” is the medical term of menstrual cramp or pain caused during menstrual period.

Being a woman, you must have heard about this or even experienced this.

Nearly every woman experiences these cramps at least once in her life. There is no specific age limit for these cramps.

These cramps range from slight discomfort, interfering daily with routine and severely annoying.

Categorization of the cramps:

• Primary Dysmenorrheal(cramps)
• Secondary Dysmenorrheal (cramps)

Primary cramps are often seen in young girls who have just started their menstruation cycle. Pain is felt in the lower abdomen, back and some times even in thighs.

Pains start shortly before the onset of the periods and last for three to five days. These cramps become less severe in your mid-twenties or even stop when you give birth to a child.

Secondary cramp is the pain caused due to the disorder in reproductive organs such as fibroid tumors, pelvic adhesions, endometriosis and ovarian cysts. It usually begins in early stage of menstrual cycle and last longer than regular menstrual cramps.

Reasons for the cramps:

For primary cramps, the cause of pain is exactly unknown, but it can be caused due to the below reasons: