Is it true that permanent menses wear out the body?
Interview: Karina Sembe
Last week we thoroughly delved into the topic of menstruation - found out why menstruation occurs, how to observe hygiene during menstruation, and why this topic remains taboo in modern society. While menstruation is an absolutely natural process for the female body, for many of us regular bleeding is not easy. According to surveys, 72% of women in developed countries experience discomfort during menstruation, and 40% would prefer never to have menstruation in their lives, provided that it is harmless to the body.
Scientists note that this "fatigue" is not surprising: before the advent of modern contraceptives, women of reproductive age were in almost all times in one of two conditions - either they were pregnant or were breastfeeding - and experienced about 160 menstrual cycles in their entire life. Nowadays, we manage to survive more than 450 cycles, in connection with which there is a scientific opinion that endless ovulation and menstruation are stress for the reproductive system. We asked the obstetrician-gynecologist to help find out whether monthly bleedings really "wear out" the female body over time.
Oksana Bogdashevskaya
obstetrician-gynecologist, gynecologist-endocrinologist
The essence of the problem is not in regular menstruation per se, but in "confused" regular menstruation. So, the female body has completed a difficult period of puberty, has established a two-phase menstrual cycle and receives signals about the beginning of sexual life. The hypothalamic-pituitary system, as a conductor, leads a complex orchestra of the reproductive system in order to best accomplish the most important task - procreation. It is the “idle” work of the reproductive organs that leads to the growth of hyperplastic and neoplastic processes: uterine myomas, endometriosis, endometrial hyperplasia.
This topic was raised in the 90s of the twentieth century by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.N. Serov and received the name "ecological reproductive dissonance". Indeed, the distinction between modern reproductive behavior and the program that has worked for millennia is obvious. In the modern world, menstruation begins in girls aged 10-11 years, and the birth of the first child can be delayed up to 30 or more, and only 42% of babies get mother's milk for more than 3 months. Biologists and anthropologists have proven the inability of the female reproductive system to long-term existence outside of pregnancy and lactation.
With the monthly rejection of the endometrial functional layer, menstruation becomes more abundant and prolonged. Monthly ovulation provides a regular aseptic "inflammation" in the abdominal cavity, associated with rupture of the ovarian tissue. A narrow cervical canal of an unborn woman predisposes to throwing menstrual blood into the abdominal cavity through the fallopian tubes. All these processes are absolutely normal, but with repeated repetition they can trigger pathological changes, manifested by a global increase in gynecological morbidity.
Ovulation and monthly menstruation are necessary only for the realization of reproductive function.
Obviously, it is impossible to return to the patriarchal scenario in which a woman had no more than 30-40 menstruation before the first pregnancy, and then entered into an endless series of cycles from 9 months of pregnancy and 2 years of lactation. In addition, numerous pregnancies and childbirth also do not heal women and do not increase the duration and quality of life.
Nevertheless, there are ways to arrange a "vacation for the ovaries". First, it is in our power to continue to work to support breastfeeding. Even in women with a genetic predisposition, the first year of lactation reduces the likelihood of breast cancer by 32%, and the second - by almost half.
The second option was the possibility of stabilizing the hypothalamic-pituitary axis with hormonal contraceptives. Combined oral contraceptives (COCs) immerse the reproductive system in a state of calm expectation, providing the body with a biologically necessary period of reproductive rest.
Cyclic fluctuations in the level of sex steroids, ovulation and monthly menstruation do not have an independent biological value and are necessary only for the realization of reproductive function. Long-term, long-term suppression of these processes is guaranteed to be reversible and completely safe (of course, the use of COCs is possible only on prescription and in the absence of contraindications. - Ed.).
Menstrual-like bleeding while taking COCs is nothing more than withdrawal reactions, and with the use of drugs in prolonged mode, you can reduce the number of menstrual-like reactions to 3-4 per year. Moreover, the Russian market now has drugs with a flexible prolonged regimen and our women can plan their menstruation at a convenient time.
Photo: meine Pille online, Yoni