Archive for the 'Menstrual Cycle' Category

“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:

Dysmenorrhea refers to the condition with menstrual cramps and painful periods.

Dysmenorrhea is of two types: primary dysmenorrhea and secondary dysmenorrhea.

Primary dysmenorrhea refers to menstrual cramping and pain in the lower abdomen that usually occurs before or during menstrual periods.

It occurs in the absence of certain pelvic diseases. The primary dysmenorrhea is so common that the occurrence of it is about ninety percent.

With primary dysmenorrhea, you generally experience unusual uterine contractions due to chemical imbalances in your body.

On the other hand, secondary dysmenorrhea refers to the menstrual pain in the presence of pelvic diseases. Most often, the secondary dysmenorrhea condition occurs due to endometriosis, which results in infection, pelvic pain and internal bleeding.

Pelvic inflammatory disease, uterine fibroids, pelvic infection, tumors, or polyps are also cause secondary dysmenorrhea. The pain usually begins few days before the onset of the menstrual periods and remains for several days after the periods.

Dysmenorrhea is so common that it affects forty-five to ninety percent of all women of reproductive age. You can develop this condition easily if you smoke, consume alcohol during menses, the onset of your menstruation is before eleven years, or overweight.

Menorrhagia is a medical condition that refers to heavy menstrual bleeding.

It is a common condition that women will undergo at some point throughout their lives. This condition is also known as hypermenorrhea.

Heavy menstrual bleeding in this condition refers to excessive flow and duration of the bleeding at regular intervals of your menstrual cycle.

In other words, it is the menstrual bleeding more than 80ml for every period.

According to World Health Organization recent researches, it is found that eighteen million women between the ages of 30 to 55 are with menorrhagia.

The menstrual cycle and menstrual bleeding of a woman varies from another woman.

Menstrual cycle refers to the period of time from the first day of your menstrual bleeding to the last day before your next menstrual bleeding. The average length of a normal menstrual cycle will be 28 days. However, it can last between 22-35 days.

Periods that come every 21 days or fewer are called polymenorrhea and the menses that takes place more than every 35 days are called oligomenorrhea.

On the other hand, menstrual flow refers to the number of days bleeding occurs in a menstrual period. A normal menstrual flow can last three to seven days, with an average of three days.

Irregular menstrual cycle refers to a change in regular menstrual periods or menses.

Menses is a natural way of cleaning of the uterus and vagina of sperm and bacteria that are carried. [Facts about menstrual cycle]
A menstrual cycle is measured from the start of one menses to the start of another.

Mostly it ranges anywhere from 21 to 35 days.

Every woman usually has a certain cycle length that is rather constant but sometimes varies 1-2 days per month.

Remember that the onset of menses for every 35 days (regularly) is not considered as irregular menstrual cycle.

However, irregular menstrual cycles can be either of short term or long-term irregularity.

Long-term irregularity can be anything from a cycle that changes in length from month to month to the experience of various abnormal symptoms such as heavy bleeding, no cycle for months for a period of time, very painful periods or ovulation.

Short-term irregularity can be due to any of the causes such as fatigue, stress, and over exercise which generally occurs infrequently.

Irregular menstrual cycle has become common problem among women today. It is found that one out of every five women suffer with this problem. There are several reasons for a menstrual cycle to become irregular.

Menstruation is also called menses (periods).

It is part of the menstrual cycle.

Menstrual cycle is the body’s way of preparing you (woman) for pregnancy.

When you, as a girl, get your first menstrual period, known as menarche, then it will be one of the many physical signs that you are turning into a woman.

Having periods regularly indicates that your body is functioning properly.

Normally, menarche occurs after two to three years when your breasts begin to develop. Remember, menarche doesn’t occur until all parts of your reproductive system get matured and work together.

Generally, your body and mind get changes during teenage years. Thus, for the most part, menstruation starts between the ages of twelve and thirteen but a first period may occur as early as age nine.

Changes in hormones that usually occur every month stimulate your body to release an ovum (egg). The production of this ovum in different stages refers to a menstrual cycle.

The menstrual cycle is a twenty-eight day long process that each and every female come across regularly until they reach menopause stage. This menstrual cycle, usually, lasts around twenty-eight days but, in rare cases, it can be as long as 40 days.