Being smacked with the period stick and double-smacked with abdominal cramps, erratic mood swings and a bloated stomach your jeans won’t accommodate is a familiar feeling for all of us. But then, there are some of us who experience exasperatingly heavy bleeding as compared to others.
Nobody enjoys walking around with that feeling of the red falls gushing between your legs, wondering every minute, if it’s time to change already. God may not have an answer to your predicament, but thankfully, science does.
As Jackie Maybin of the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh, UK says,
“Heavy menstrual bleeding is one of the most common reasons for referral to a gynaecologist. It can have a big impact on a person’s quality of life.”
According to a report by New Scientist, heavy menstrual bleeding or Menorrhagia is normally known to be caused by factors such as hormonal imbalance, uterine fibroids or polyps but studies show that there is a protein called HIF1 (Hypoxia Inducible Factor 1) which plays an important role in menstrual bleeding.
During periods, oxygen levels in the uterus drop. The HIF1 is responsible for repairing the gut during this time. To find out if HIF1 plays an essential role in repairing the uterine lining after a period, Dr. Maybin tested cells from the uterus lining of a group of women, half of whom experienced heavy bleeding.
HIF1 was found to be present in the uterus during menstruation but those with heavy bleeding had lower amounts of the protein.
It was revealed that the protein plays an important part in stopping menstrual blood loss as well.
As of now women use hormonal contraceptives like the pill or coil to treat Menorrhagia. Maybin hopes that we will come up with treatments that will boost HIF1 levels to help women who suffer from heavy menstrual bleeding.
And God knows we need it!