Lean menses: reasons. Video
Every month in the body of a healthy woman of childbearing age, if she is not pregnant and breastfeeding, the upper layer of the endometrium is rejected from the uterus, which was prepared for the future fetus. This is accompanied by bleeding, the volume of which is normally between 50 and 150 ml. Too much or too little bleeding during menstruation may indicate an abnormality in the body.
Lean menstrual bleeding is called hypomenorrhea. As a rule, with hypomenorrhea, a very small amount of blood is secreted, which is often brown. During such menstruation, the pads are not completely saturated even in a few hours, and sometimes the discharge simply smears the linen, only drops of blood appear.
In addition, hypomenorrhea is often accompanied by oligomenorrhea – a short period of menstruation, about two days.
Many women with this disorder also experience abdominal and lower back pain, headaches, nausea, and gastrointestinal disturbances. In some women with hypomenorrhea, reproductive function and libido decrease, since the body produces a small amount of estrogen. In some cases, scanty periods are not a cause for concern, in others they are pathological changes that require a doctor’s consultation.
In most cases, hypomenorrhea is a pathology, nevertheless, there are several conditions in a woman’s life when a meager period can be considered normal or physiological, that is, not leading to the development of serious diseases or other consequences. Firstly, this is the period of the formation of the girl’s menstrual cycle. The first periods during puberty – menarche – are often scanty, but this is not a cause for concern. Typically, the cycle, including its duration and blood volumes, is established within a year after menarche, after which the bleeding should be normal in volume.
If, after a year or more, after the first menstruation, a girl releases a very small amount of blood, then this already speaks of pathology.
Secondly, scanty periods are observed in women during the extinction of fertility, that is, in the premenopausal period, which passes before menopause. This time period usually lasts two years, during which menstruation becomes less and less abundant and prolonged. Nevertheless, physiological hypomenorrhea during this period is not observed in all women. Lean menstruation can occur in a woman after childbirth if she does not breastfeed, as the body slowly rebuilds the hormonal background.
For several cycles, hypomenorrhea is normal, but if your regular period with enough blood does not come, you need to see a doctor.
Pathological hypomenorrhea
Pathological hypomenorrhea can be divided into two types:
primary: when there was not a single normal menstruation in the girl’s life, all bleeding was scant;
secondary: for a while, menstruation was normal, after which little blood began to be released.
The causes of primary hypomenorrhea are most often congenital anomalies in the development of the genitals, often accompanied by delays in mental development. But sometimes this can be explained by acquired signs, for example, critically low body weight – in a woman estrogens are stored in adipose tissue, so a low percentage of fat reduces the production of these hormones. In addition, in some cases, scanty periods may simply be a genetic trait that is inherited.
In such cases, hypomenorrhea does not interfere with the normal course of pregnancy and childbirth and does not lead to infertility.
Secondary hypomenorrhea can have many different causes. For example, a decrease in blood volume during menstruation is observed in chronic endometritis – inflammation of the lining of the uterus. This disease often occurs after abortions and other surgical operations in the uterus, when an infection is introduced into the cavity. Other gynecological diseases can also affect the amount of menstrual blood secreted: for example, infections, polyps, uterine fibroids, and pelvic disease. Pathological narrowing of the cervix leads to the fact that a sufficient amount of blood is not passed through the entrance, which also manifests itself in the form of hypomenorrhea. Lean menstruation can occur during diseases and injuries of the urinary tract, thyroid diseases, tuberculosis, diabetes mellitus.
Lean menstruation can be caused by strong fluctuations in weight, stress, emotional overload, lack of vitamins.
– In rare cases, after the abolition of COCs (combined oral contraceptives), amenorrhea is observed. It can be a consequence of atrophic changes in the endometrium that develop when taking drugs. Menstruation appears when the functional layer of the endometrium is restored on its own or after estrogen treatment. Amenorrhea lasting more than 2 months is observed in approximately 6% of women, especially in the early and late period of fertility, after stopping COC use. (the so-called hyperinhibition syndrome). The nature and causes of amenorrhea, as well as the response to therapy in women using COCs, do not increase the risk, but may mask the development of amenorrhea with regular menstrual bleeding.
Climate change, changes in diet and lifestyle, diet, serious injury or intense physical activity lead to the development of hypomenorrhea. Chemicals and radiation can also contribute to lean menstruation. In some cases, the use of oral contraceptives reduces the volume of blood during menstruation. Sometimes scanty periods occur in the early stages of pregnancy – in fact, this is not real menstruation, but bleeding associated with pregnancy: it can be implantation bleeding or a sign of placental detachment. In this case, you need to urgently consult a doctor in order to establish or exclude the threat of interruption.