What Your Period Can Tell You About Your Health

Your menstrual cycle can be an invaluable source of information about your health. It can indicate whether you have a gynaecological condition that needs attention and even guide you to make fertility-related decisions such as when to get pregnant or what kind of birth control is best for you. Simona Terron spoke to Dr Gayatri Rao, gynaecologist and obstetrician at Women’s Hospital, Khar in Mumbai. She’s diagnosed and successfully treated several patients with reproductive health issues in her 13 years of practice

- Simona Terron

Women’s reproductive health is a tricky topic as it overlaps with a lot of social taboos and prime among them is a woman’s period. What are the few pointers you can share with our readers that will allow them to observe their period as an indicator of underlying problems? Like heavy and irregular periods could point to PCOS, Endometriosis, etc.

Dr Gayatri: An average menstrual cycle length is between 21 to 35 days and bleeding usually lasts for two to seven days. Any sudden change in the pattern of one’s cycle can point to an underlying problem. Longer and irregular cycles with scanty bleeding can point to PCOS. Women with fibroids can have heavier and painful cycles. Spotting in between periods can suggest an endometrial or cervical polyp. Women with endometriosis present with pain not only during periods but also in the pre-menstrual period. They may also have heavy periods. Ovarian cysts are another cause of irregular cycles.

How effective are various birth control methods in solving period p-related issues? Could you please list them with their respective pros and cons? Which ones have extreme side effects or are prohibitively expensive?