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In Indonesian culture, menstrual blood that is released by women every month is often associated with dirty blood. However, have you ever wondered what dirty blood actually means? How is it different from the blood that comes out when your hand is scratched by a sharp object, for example? Is it true that menstrual blood includes dirty blood?
Check out the full answer to menstrual blood below, according to medical glasses.
Is menstrual blood dirty blood?
Menstruation or menstruation, also known as menstruation, is a normal monthly cycle in which a woman bleeds from the vagina.
Blood that comes out of the vagina is often referred to as dirty blood. However, the presumption not true from a health and science standpoint.
Menstrual blood is not dirty blood as is widely believed. Menstrual blood is actually no different from blood from wounds or blood from nosebleeds. It's just that menstrual blood contains remaining tissue from the uterine wall that sheds after ovulation.
Menstruation occurs when the lining of the uterine wall, which contains a lot of blood vessels, sheds and leaves through the vagina.
Every month the body will prepare for pregnancy by releasing an egg. The release of an egg from the ovary is known as ovulation. If the released egg is not fertilized with sperm cells, the egg will dissolve and come out along with the blood from the uterine wall.
At that instant, levels of the hormones estrogen and progesterone begin to fall. Very low levels of estrogen and progesterone tell the body to start menstruation.
When you have your period, your body removes the monthly pile from the wall of your uterus. Menstrual blood and tissues flow from the uterus through a small opening in the cervix and out of the body through the vagina.
Reporting from Liputan6, according to the Clinical Nutrition Specialist of the Department of Nutrition FKUI-RSCM, Dr. dr. Inge Permadhi, MS, Sp.GK said that in the menstrual cycle, women will lose clean blood supply containing hemoglobin. Therefore, during menstruation the body can become weak due to iron deficiency.
Actually, what is meant by dirty blood?
Medically, dirty blood is blood that lacks oxygen (deoxygeneted blood) or the carbon dioxide content is too high. On the other hand, oxygenated blood is known as clean blood (oxygenated blood).
Blood flows from the heart to the lungs to produce oxygen, then returns to the heart and the rest of the body.
Oxygen-deficient blood, aka dirty blood, will be pumped by the right ventricle of the heart, then flowed to the lungs through the pulmonary arteries. Then the lungs will bind oxygen, so that the blood that is flowed to the heart and the rest of the body is blood that is rich in oxygen.
If the oxygen level in the blood is low, the lungs are deprived of oxygen to flow to the heart and the rest of the body. This condition is called hypoxemia.
Hypoxemia can interfere with normal body functions, including the function of the brain, liver, heart and other organs.
When your blood oxygen level starts to get low, you will experience symptoms such as:
- Shortness of breath in response to the lungs to increase oxygen levels in the blood
- Fast heartbeat in response to the heart to help circulate oxygen in the blood throughout the body
- Chest pain, because the heart is not receiving enough oxygen
- Headache
- Limp body
- Dazed
- Restless
So if you have dirty blood in your body, you will definitely feel the symptoms mentioned above, both in men and women. While menstrual blood is not oxygen deficient or excess carbon dioxide, it is normal blood in the body. That's why menstrual blood isn't really dirty blood.
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