3. Shouldn’t have a bath
Some think that having a bath or even taking a shower during your period is unsafe. This is either because hot water stimulates bleeding, or because the water stops you from bleeding, which can have ill effects.
While hot water can help stimulate blood flow, this can actually help relieve menstrual cramps and ease muscular tension.
Bleeding does not stop following full immersion in water. However, the pressure from the water may temporarily prevent the blood from flowing out of the vagina.
Nollywood comedian, Baba Suwe, on admission at LUTH
There is no reason not to have a bath or shower during your period. Most likely, relaxing in a bubble bath and feeling cleaner as a result of it will improve your mood and help you cope with menstruation symptoms a little better.
Furthermore, it is better and healthier to use water and mild, unfragranced soap to clean the vulva than wipes or other products. This is because many intimate care products can disrupt the delicate bacterial balance in the genital area, making it easier for infections to take hold.
A study that Medical News Today reported on last year found a “strong correlation” between the use of intimate care products, such as gel sanitizers and vaginal cleansers, and a heightened risk of infection.
Plus, having a hot bath could bring a host of other health benefits. One study covered on MNT last year suggested that baths may reduce inflammation and improve blood sugar.
- Syncing periods
women sitting together on a sofa
Is period synchrony a real phenomenon?
One pervasive question surrounding periods is whether can they actually sync. For example, if two or more women spend enough time together, perhaps as roommates, will they have periods at the same time?
One person, speaking to MNT, said that she was even taught about period synchrony in school, and was still wondering whether the notion was accurate.
She told us:
“I heard about period syncing a long time ago when I studied in an all-girls’ school. Then, when I started living with [my two female roommates], I noticed we often had periods around the same time. [Another friend] says that this is due to an alpha-female releasing hormones that affect the period cycles of other women around her.”
So is any of this true? After all, many of us are likely to have experienced “period syncing” at some point, in a school, work, or home-sharing environment.
The notion of “period synchrony” first appeared as a scientific idea in a 1971 Nature article. This article argued that women who lived in close quarters — roommates in a college dorm — or who were close friends, experienced increased menstruation synchrony.
The study’s authors believed that this probably happened because the women who lived so closely together “exchanged” pheromones over time, which eventually led to this phenomenon.
However, later studies cast doubts on the methodology researchers used for the 1971 research. The later studies highlighted numerous shortcomings and modifying factors that the original researchers had not accounted for. They also noted a “lack of empirical evidence for synchrony in the foregoing studies of both Western and non-Western populations.”
Moreover, studies that followed were never able to replicate the findings of the initial research. convincingly. Research published more recently did not find that college roommates experienced menstrual synchrony.
Investigators have since become more inclined to believe that the notion is nothing but an enduring myth, with any synchrony being purely coincidental.
Alexandra Alvergne, who is an associate professor in biocultural anthropology at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, told the BBC that, “As humans, we always like exciting stories. We want to explain what we observe by something that is meaningful. And the idea that what we observe is due to chance or randomness is just not as interesting.”
- Tampon myths
Finally, some of the most persistent misconceptions refer to the use of tampons to absorb period blood. Because a person has to insert a tampon in the vagina, some people may worry that this may cause some damage.
Creative image of tampons
Inserting a tampon in the vagina will not break the hymen.
One primary worry is that inserting a tampon can break the hymen, which, as popular misconception has it, is a “mark of virginity.”
Courtesy: medicalhealthnewstoday.com