So, I have a question which randomly popped up in my head a few minutes ago. I have my period right now, it hurts quite a bit and I can feel something in my lower abdomen 'working'. I don't know how to describe it, but I feel how the muscles are contracting and it's sorta pulsating inside. Feels interesting :lol: Anyways, I know that this is my body working on pushing the lining off of the walls of my uterus so that it can...well...come out... :lol: And this is what causes menstrual cramps and how much they hurt depends on how high the level of prostaglandin is (if you'd take conditions like endometriosis out of the equation). So: 1. Why do some girls have lower levels of prostaglandin while some have higher? Is there a reason for that? Something that influences the level of prostaglandin? And does it vary from period to period? Because I have noticed that sometimes I barely feel any pain while menstruating while at other times I can barely move and spend most of the time crying because the pain is unbearable. Why is that? Again is there a reason or something that influences it? 2. Is menstruating exhausting for the body? Is it something that takes up quite some energy? Is the shedding of the lining off of the walls of the uterus and the contracting of the muscles hard work? Or is it like scratching my nose? What's up with the muscles? Do they get stronger with time? I mean, normally if you use certain musles a lot they become stronger, so after like 30 years of menstruating is there a difference in the muscles? 3. Why do young girls often have worse menstrual cramps than older women? As I said - these questions just popped up in my head and I figured somebody on here might know the answers, since I found them to be quite interesting for myself and others
In my opinion, menstruation is an indication of how healthy you are, I'm not sure how exhausting it is for the body but it must be on some level. All I know is that when my weight drops below a certain point, my period stops altogether and even when I'm 4-5 pounds over that, I barely have periods. (By the way, it's not such a low weight as you might think it is.) I personally don't feel contractions or cramps during my periods anymore. But those can happen a lot during ovulation and recently my period has started a week after that so they're only 2-3 days long. (Please, don't be jealous of this as I might have screwed up my chances of having babies...) In my experience, age doesn't really matter when it comes to periods. I think it's all down to hormones which are influenced by weight/how much you eat BUT this is only what I think based on my experiences, it might not be true for everyone. I've gone through periods of getting it every 21 days (very light, 2-3 days long) to 38 days (light but 6-7 days long) and then there were those 18 months when I did not get it at all, probably because my body's main concern was keeping me alive so it was functioning on the lowest possible level.
Those are interesting questions! You've put a lot of thought into this, that's for sure! :lol: I have a thought on the whole uterine muscle strength question and it goes a little something like this... - Uterine muscles are an example of involuntary muscles; others include the muscles that push food through the digestive tract via peristalsis (oesophagus, stomach, intestines), heart and those found in the eyes' iris to alter the size of the pupil. - You can't control the movements or contractions of them consciously (If we could, I bet most women would forego period cramps!) - You never hear about cures to strengthen digestive muscles or stomach muscle training regimes, for example; I don't think they can get stronger or weaker. - Your cardiac muscle is resistant to fatigue, unlike your legs that would seize up when you've run a lot. You heart rate will decease the fitter you become because it grows larger, thus it capable of pumping more blood in a given time frame, meaning it doesn't need to pump as often. - The older the people are, you can assume they've used their eyes more, yet our parents and grandparents don't have subsequently larger irises. You also don't find super-toned irises on super models for example. So I can conclude that like all other involuntary muscles, you can't strengthen your uterine muscles. And that's me all thought-out. I'll come back if I've had any more ponders worthy of sharing.
I'm guessing it probably is hard work. I mean, when I have menstrual cramps (which I do the first couple days of every period, unless I take aspirin or something), the pain feels like the kind of pain I get in my muscles when I've been exercising hard. Difference is, I can just stop exercising at will, while I can't stop my uterus from contracting at will. I've also heard that giving birth tends to get rid of menstrual pain. By which I mean, if you have menstrual pain on a regular basis, and then you get pregnant and go through labour, when your periods start up again they don't hurt as much. Which would support the idea that it's muscle pain - labour is an extremely intense workout for those muscles, and strengthens them to the point where the minor effort of menstruation is no big deal.
