Menstrual Hygiene & Fertility: How Your Periods Are Affecting Your Reproductive System

Menstrual hygiene is an essential aspect of staying healthy. It ensures that our private parts remain free from infections, rashes, redness and itching among other issues. In fact, Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) is a result of poor period hygiene.

Apart from that, vaginal infections can have a long-lasting effect on your reproductive organs which you might not be able to identify at an early stage. Therefore, it is crucial to opt for hygienic practices when it comes to intimate and menstrual health.

Periods have a direct impact on our health, they drive our monthly hormone cycle, affect our moods and in many cases lead to nausea, vomiting, severe cramps and diarrhoea. Therefore, we asked Dr Kalyani Shrimali, Fertility Consultant at Nova IVF Fertility, Indore, if period hygiene can directly impact fertility among women.

Relation Between Menstrual Hygiene & Fertility

“Menstrual hygiene is important not only for overall health but also because it is closely associated with the fertility of females,” said Dr Shrimali.

Poor menstrual hygiene can lead to vaginal infections like Bacterial Vaginosis (infection of the vagina). If you catch endometritis and pelvic inflammatory disease, it can create fertility issues or even lead to infertility in the worst cases.

This can be due to tubal blockage or decreased ovarian reserve or endometrium (the uterine lining which supports the baby) being infected (endometritis). Poor menstrual hygiene can pose serious health risks, including reproductivity and urinary tract infections which can contribute to infertility and birth complications.

In the case of pelvic infections, there can be tubal damage. In such situation, your fallopian tubes can have adhesions. The infection can also cause tubal mucosal damage or tubal occlusion that can prevent the ovum (single cell or egg released from either of the ovaries) from travelling normally.

A PID (pelvic inflammatory disease) can lead to infertility and permanent damage to a woman's reproductive organs. Therefore, Dr Shrimali suggests taking proper measures, changing or cleaning menstrual products timely and not using any product that can lead to any sort of infection.

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Symptoms That Menstrual Hygiene Is Affecting Fertility

According to Dr Shrimali, common clinical symptoms include

• Vaginal discharge
• Dyspareunia (persistent or recurrent pain before, during or after intercourse)
• Itching
• Burning sensation
• Shorter and scanty menstrual cycles
• Lower abdominal pain due to pelvic infections

Diagnosis

Dr Shrimali said that an ultrasound showing tubal infection in the form of hydrosalpinx (damage and blockage of the end portion of a fallopian tube can cause it to become filled with fluid; the swollen and fluid-filled tube) is the best way to diagnose if menstrual hygiene of a woman has started to affect her reproductive system.

Therefore, if you experience any symptoms related to any kind of vaginal infection, you should immediately consult a doctor. Only an expert can diagnose the issue, prescribe the right course of treatment and ensure that you recover quickly. This is the only way to prevent the condition from worsening.

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Menstrual Hygiene Measures

Here are a few things you must keep in mind during periods to ensure proper hygiene.

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• Change disposable pads, tampons and panty liners between six and eight hours.
• If you are using cloth pads, period panties or any such period product, you should ensure to change them more frequently. Wash them thoroughly in between uses.
• In case you use a menstrual cup or disc, you should empty them every six to eight hours, boil them before and after use and run them through clean water.