menstrual health cycle

There is no absolutely universal "standard menstrual health cycle". As long as your own cycle pattern is stable and you have no obvious discomfort, an interval of 21-35 days (from the first day of your menstrual period to the first day of your next menstrual period), a menstrual period lasting 2-8 days, and a menstrual flow volume in the range of 20-60ml are all within a completely healthy range. There is no need to cobble together the "28-day gold standard" spread online.

Last week, a friend who was attending a gynecology clinic told me about a very interesting case: a 22-year-old girl came in holding a screenshot of a certain red book and said that her cycle was wrong and she needed to adjust it back to 28 days, otherwise it would "look like premature ovarian failure." When I asked, I found out that she had been counting "the end of her last menstrual period to the first day of this period" as her cycle, and she was so panicked when she calculated it to be 25 days. But according to the correct calculation from the first day of each menstruation, her cycle was stable at 32 days, which was just in the healthy range. She had been anxious for less than half a year.

It’s quite helpless to say that there are too many rules and regulations about menstruation on the Internet, but many people forget that menstruation is essentially the product of the cyclic fluctuations of your hypothalamus-pituitary-ovary axis (that is, the core regulatory axis that controls hormone secretion). To put it bluntly, it is your body’s own biological clock - other people’s clocks rotate once every 28 days, and yours rotates once every 32 days. As long as it is accurate and does not go off track, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Different medical systems actually have different judgment logics on health cycles. Modern Western medicine pays more attention to the word "regularity". As long as your cycle does not fluctuate more than 7 days and there are no abnormalities in the six hormone tests, even if it comes only once every 35 days all year round, there is no need to intervene. The judgment of traditional Chinese medicine will be more biased towards the individual's qi and blood status. For example, some girls are naturally deficient in qi and blood, and their cycles will be three to five days longer than others, but they usually have a rosy complexion, cold hands and feet, and no obvious menstrual pain. That is not a problem, and there is no need to use blood-activating herbs to force the cycle forward.

Oh, by the way, I met a girl a while ago. In order to keep her cycle "standard", she drank three kinds of Internet celebrity Qi and Blood Oral Liquids every day. As a result, her menstrual flow increased dramatically, and she finally had to take hemostatic drugs to suppress it. It was really unnecessary. If you are not sure whether your cycle is normal or not, you don’t need to blindly compare it with online tables. Just use the health APP that comes with your mobile phone to record the first half of the year. Your own "normal" is the health standard that is most suitable for you: If it has been 28 days before, and suddenly becomes 40 days for three consecutive months, or it only happens once every half month, then you need to go to the hospital for check-up.

At this point, someone must have asked about the controversies, such as whether one can eat ice cream or exercise during menstruation? In fact, there is no unified answer. The view of Western medicine is that as long as you don’t feel pain after eating ice and don’t feel tired after running, it’s totally fine. I have a friend who grew up abroad who eats ice drinks every day during menstruation and has no problem. ； However, the Chinese Medicine Association recommends that girls who have uterine cold, dark menstrual blood with blood clots, and pain that makes them unable to straighten their waists should try not to touch the ice, and try not to do strenuous running or jumping in the first three days to avoid stagnation of qi and blood. Both statements are correct. The core thing is to see how your body feels. You don't have to follow the requirements of a certain group.

I have been keeping track of my own cycle for almost three years, and it basically fluctuates between 30 and 33 days. I used to panic because I had to wait a few days longer than others. Later, I slowly let go of my anxiety after talking to my gynecological friends too much. Now I don’t deliberately abstain from this or that during menstruation. If I want to eat ice cream, I will take a bite. If I feel a little cold after eating, I will make a cup of warm brown sugar water. If I want to go for a walk, I will lie on the sofa for a day. On the contrary, in the past six months, I have not even experienced the mild menstrual cramps that I occasionally had before.

To put it bluntly, the core of menstrual health has never been “being the same as others”, but “being the same as myself”. Don't be fooled by the standard PUAs on the Internet. The way your body feels is always more accurate than any unified standard answer.