Do you think you really know about periods

Do you think you really know about periods? Well if you do think you might be wrong. There’s a lot to know about periods especially about the color changes.  

A period is the release of blood from a female’s uterus through her vagina. Periods start after puberty which for most of the females is from 12years to 13 years but this isn’t fixed and it can vary from person to person. The first period starts after 6 months of the vaginal mucous-like discharge from the female’s vagina. After this, the cycles of periods start in a female’s life.

This cycle is also called the female menstrual cycle or menses in short

Why periods occur?

The basic simple explanation for it is that periods occur because of the breakdown of the uterus lining.  When a female reaches puberty, her body starts to produce the hormones

• Progesterone
• Estrogen

These two hormones work together and prepare the lining of the uterus to build up so that the egg, if fertilized, gets the perfect environment to multiply and reproduce. But, when the egg is not fertilized, the body breaks down the lining of the uterus, and this breakdown results in bleeding of the uterus that comes out through the vagina. 

How much time do periods take?

This whole process of building the lines of the uterus wall and then the breakdown usually takes a month. So, on average a female gets her periods once a month but it can vary from person to person. Some females might have their periods more often and some might have less. 

How much time does it take to stop?

Another question is how much time it takes for the bleeding to stop. It usually takes 4 to 5 days for a normal woman but it too varies from person to person.

What is Spotting?

Before going into the detail of periods, I will have to tell you the difference between spotting and bleeding.

Spotting is the light bleeding from a female’s vagina which can sometimes occur apart from the actual periods. In spotting, the blood quantity is too less than periods and reddish blood appears on your underwear or toilet paper. It is in huge quantity so that you have to wear a tampon or sanitary pads for it.

 Spotting can have various ranging from the growth of muscle tissue in the uterus, consuming the birth control pills, or sometimes switching from one pill to the other one.

Periods as a Health Sign

Periods occurring to a female can be used to assess the health of the female. Any change in the duration of the periods and the color of the blood can indicate something about her health. Let us now see how the blood color changes indicate health signs and what those signs are.

Color of Blood in Periods

Black blood period: 

The black color blood in the periods indicates that the blood has been in the uterus for a long and it has taken time for the blood that is why it has turned black. The brown blood in the uterus turns black if it stays there for a long time.

Brown blood

The brown period blood is the blood that has become old. It can also be called the early stage of the black. The blood can be brown for multiple reasons

• It may be due to the slow flow of your blood which means the blood is taking time to leave the body, that is why it turns brown
• It may be the leftover of the last period which has turned brown in the uterus
• It may be the brown lochia after the fourth day of delivering the baby
• It may be a sign of pregnancy because in pregnancy when the bleeding stops, the spotting can also be brown
• It may happen after a missed miscarriage in the form of brown bleeding or brown spotting

Dark Red blood 

The dark red color of the blood in periods appears after the breakdown of the lining of the uterus but the blood does not stay there for long and that is the reason the color does not change to brown or black. It can indicate the following health signs:

• It may indicate the end of your menstrual cycle
• It may indicate the healthy sign after the delivery of a baby. The lochia in the start 3 days have the dark red color and the bleeding is heavy

Bright Red blood 

The bright red color in the periods may indicate that the blood is fresh. But it can also occur due to other reasons.

• It may indicate the start of periods
• If there’s bright red blood before the start of the periods, it may indicate infections like gonorrhea.
• It can be sometimes a sign of miscarriage.
• The unwanted growths in the uterus may cause bright red blood to flow at any time.

Pink Blood

• The lochia after the first 3 days is either pink or brown after the delivery of a baby
• Pink Spotting may appear due to the low levels of the estrogen hormone in the body which is responsible for the lining of the uterus.
• Pink spotting may appear between two periods, on normal days.
• A mixture of pink and transparent fluid during pregnancy may indicate the sign of miscarriage

Orange blood

Red blood turns orange when it gets mixed up with the fluid in the cervix. It may be there for the following reasons:

• Orange spotting can be a sign of pregnancy if it does not turns into periods.
• Sometimes the discharge of orange blood might be the reason for Infections. 

Gray Blood

Gray blood release from the vagina can be due to two possible reasons:

• It may be a sign of miscarriage during pregnancy
• It may due to some bacterial infections

Conclusion

This article explains the basics of periods and what the color changes in periods mean. Hope that this will have helped you.