Healthytalk8 Periods
Contents
The menstrual cycle occurs monthly in response to reproductive hormones including estrogen and progesterone.
But why periods? They are necessary to start the female reproductive system and connect the steps of becoming a mother.
Periods are considered irregular if they occur less than every 21 days or more than every 35 days, outside the normal cycle range. (1).
Research estimate that each woman experiences menstruation 400 times in her fertility age.
However, talk to the doctor if you experience frequent irregular periods, from month to month, and it is not that harmful.
However irregular or heavy bleeding can lead to iron deficiency due to low blood count, which also leads to low hemoglobin.
NOTE: Also, Irregular bleeding and spotting are almost permanent after 1 to 3 months of treatment (2).
1. Birth Control Pills
The most commonly given pill is the combined hormonal pill including estrogen and progesterone.
Progesterone is the hormone that prevents pregnancy, and the estrogen component controls menstrual bleeding (3).
See, birth control pills do not directly affect periods, but they can lead to irregular periods including:
- Dietary changes
- Exercises
- Continuous birth control pill
- Stress, affects both mental and physical health (4)
Birth control pills show adverse effects including nausea, headache, cramps, breast tenderness, increased vaginal discharge, and low libido.
These pills are mainly used to prevent cramps, excessive bleeding, etc but excessive use leads to irregular periods (5)
2. Pregnancy
Yes, pregnancy can lead to irregular periods, and can also make it difficult to be pregnant, but how?
If women skip periods, they may also experience ovulate (Which is a process in which a mature egg is released from the ovary)
Basically, during irregular periods, women lose estrogen and progesterone hormone, which are responsible for being pregnant.
NOTE: Overall, an irregular menstrual cycle causes subtle or sufficient hormonal imbalance.
Common signs of pregnancy, but these signs may also see in other health conditions, so confirm it with the doctor, which includes:
- Vomiting
- nausea
- feeling of tiredness
- giddiness
- feel lazy and sleepy
Check Out – Ideal Exercises During Pregnancy
3. Stress
A study on female college students showed stress levels were allied with an irregular menstrual cycle and menstrual disorders.
NOTE: Physical stress also leads to irregular periods such as extreme exercises.
A study on 696 women aged 20–40 years says, that an irregular menstrual cycle was allied with high chronic stress levels (7).
Mental stress triggers corticotrophin (affects our response to stress) hormone, which can disturb nervous system and lead to menstrual problems (8) (9).
Check Out – Is Music Can Treat Mental and Physical Illness
4. Perimenopause
Perimenopause starts as early as 40 years and may continue for 8 to 10 years, before menopause, where estrogen level is gradually decreased.
A menstrual calendar study showed that, when women entered menopause time, an irregular period cycle occurred (10).
Which was allied with increased variability in the duration of bleeding (11).
The most common signs and symptoms of premature menopause include:
- Irregular periods
- hot flashes
- night sweat
- joints pain
- longer period or short period
- mood swings
- dryness in the vagina, eyes, and mouth
- Increase or decrease in weight
- heavy bleeding
- depression, and anxiety
- headache
- breast tenderness
- hair loss or thinning
- disturbance on sleep
- Period stopping altogether without any other reason
- heavy bleeding
To prevent perimenopause adopting a healthy lifestyle includes:
5. Uncontrolled Diabetes
An irregular menstrual cycle may also be associated with type II diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases (12).
The majority of studies reveal that irregular cycles have a higher risk of type II diabetes and CVD (13).
There are many studies, and researchers, who considered that diabetes is allied with an irregular period cycle.
When someone has diabetes, their body’s ability to produce insulin is completely stopped, which can lead to Hypoglycemia.
- Hypoglycemia (a condition, where a diabetic person’s blood sugar level falls too low)
- Insulin is a hormone made in our pancreas, which helps the body to maintain body sugar levels.
Some common symptoms of diabetes such as:
- Increased hunger
- Blurry vision
- Weakness
- Frequent urination
- More thirsty than usual days
Check – Natural Ways To Prevent Pre-Diabetes And Diabetes
6. Excessive Exercise
Studies have shown that high-intensity exercise is allied with menstrual disturbance and subfertility.
Excessive exercise has been shown in oligomenorrhea and other menstrual dysfunctions like amenorrhea (missing one or more period cycles)
“Amenorrhea” can also lead to underlying medical conditions such as:
- Low bone density, which causes osteoarthritis, more the chance of bone fracture
- Slow metabolism
- Muscles easily break down
- Decreased appetite, which leads to weight loss
7. Smoking
In a 2018 study where smokers had a 1.4 times higher prevalence of irregular menstrual cycles than non-smokers.
Smoking generates over 4 to 5 thousand chemicals when burned, the best known of which is – nicotine.
Nicotine also causes increased oxidative stress, neuronal apoptosis, DNA damage, and reactive oxygen species increase.
Irregular periods were defined as having more than 7 days of variability in the length of the cycle (9).
Smoking and high cigarette intake were significantly allied with premature menopause based on data (15).
8. Certain Foods
Research conducted by high school girls from Mashhad, the values of salty, fatty, fast foods, and caffeine work the same as smoking.
In addition, certain eating disorders are related to irregularities and periods of amenorrhea (16) (17)
Also, a shortage of calcium and non-saturated fatty acids is associated with painful menstrual periods (18)
9. Obesity and underweight
According to a report in 2020, more than 2 billion adults (39% of the adult global population) were overweight.
A study conducted on 1095 women (18-25 years old) in Taiwan reveals that higher BMI women at higher risk of irregular periods, compared to normal BMI (19).
Research has shown reported that obese women had more irregular and longer menstrual cycles (20) (21)
Obesity can increase estrogen production, which in turn into overweight, which is also allied with menstrual disorders (22).
The research found that women who are underweight have heavy menstrual bleeding, then normal weight women.
Researchers have shown that having heavy menstrual blood loss in underweight women was, compared to normal-weight women.
Check Out – Obesity, And Pregnancy, Is Any Relation B/W Them, Risk
10. Certain Medicines
Studies report that women (age 20 to 29 years old) used more medicines, due to periods issues, compare to men.
Here are some common medicines, which may interact with irregular periods:
- Blood-thinning
- Olanzapine is used to treat schizophrenia
- Haloperidol is used to treat mental issues (23)
- Thyroid medicines
- Chemotherapy drugs
Another report suggests that antipsychotics have more side effects in menstrual irregularities, compared to atypical (24) (25).
If you notice any discomfort, and frequent periods, after taking any medication then consult with your doctor (26).
Talk to a doctor, before taking any medicine, whether it is supplemented, or herbs, because it may interact with your condition.
11. Females Issues
Here are some common female issues, that are related to or can trigger an irregular periods cycle which includes:
Primary ovarian insufficiency (POI)
Ovarian insufficiency is referred to as ovarian failure.
Research shows a frequent loss of blood for about 3 months in healthy women to be considered to check for POI diagnosis.
POI is not a mild condition, it is estimated that around 0.3 to 1.1% of reproductive-age women face premature menopause (27).
PCOS
Irregular menstrual cycles may be a sign of diabetes, and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) (28) (29).
A 2016 study reported that women with irregular menstrual cycles had over a two-fold increase in ovarian cancer risk.
Other common women’s health issues
- Asherman’s syndrome
- Hormone-containing intrauterine devices (IUDs)
12. Adrenal gland Disorder
The AGP (location top of the kidney) is the hormone, that controls heart rate, metabolism, immunity, BP, and stress.
The endocrine system plays a key role in the being rhythm of the menstrual cycle setting (30) (31)
Study reveal that period cycle patterns affect hormonal health and irregular menstrual cycles (32)
Down Line
But long and frequent menstrual cycle leads to low hemoglobin, also iron deficiency, due to loss of blood.
Irregular periods main reason is an unhealthy lifestyle, stress, and not doing any physical activity, even in young females.
Talk to your doctor, if you see any irregularity in your periods, whether it is fast, slow, or heavy, basically, it is not a serious issue.
