Menstrual health education

There are no "must-observe rules during menstruation" that apply to everyone. All precautions must be based on personal physical feelings as the core judgment criterion. There is no need to blindly follow the old rule of "no washing your hair and not touching the cold" to endure discomfort, nor can you use "good physical fitness" as an excuse to overextend your body. The essence of scientific nursing is to respect individual differences and establish a menstrual response plan that adapts to your own physical condition.

To be honest, in the five years I have been working as a grassroots gynecologist, the most common problems I have encountered are not complex pathological problems, but questions such as "Can my aunt drink iced milk tea?" and "Will there be any sequelae if I wash my hair today?" Last week, I met a girl who was a sophomore in high school and came to ask for leave for menstrual cramps. She was wrapped in two layers of school uniforms on a 30-degree day. Her hair was so oily and frizzy that she didn’t dare to wash it. She said that her mother had repeatedly warned her that washing her hair during menstruation would cause headaches due to old age. As a result, she was sweating all over her head. It was just dull dysmenorrhea at first, but the heat had worsened and she couldn’t sit still.

In fact, many of the taboos passed down from the elders are not completely unreasonable, but they are adapted to the living environment a few decades ago where there was no 24-hour hot water, no quick-drying hair dryers, and even warm clothes in winter. At that time, touching cold water or washing hair during menstruation was indeed easy to cause discomfort due to coldness. Now, it has become an "iron rule" regardless of the scene. What’s interesting is that another extreme is now popular on the Internet, saying, “Foreign girls drink ice during menstruation and run marathons. There are so many pretentious things.” Two months ago, I treated a girl who has been working out all year round. After hearing this statement, my aunt forced herself to run 10 kilometers on the first day. As a result, she had a ruptured corpus luteum and was hospitalized for three days. When she was discharged, she was aggrieved, saying that something happened to her when everyone else could run.

There is no such thing as "everyone else can do it". There is a huge difference between people's physiques. Take the most controversial issue of "can you eat ice"? There is currently no unified conclusion in the academic community: traditional Chinese medicine believes that cold food can cause qi and blood stasis and induce dysmenorrhea, while modern evidence-based medicine believes that as long as there is no discomfort after eating, there is no need for contraindications. Both sides are supported by clinical data from large samples. Every time I am asked this question, I never give a definite answer. I just ask the questioner: Did you feel uncomfortable after eating ice cream last time? If nothing happens after eating, you can make iced milk tea and iced watermelon. If you feel pain after eating and can't straighten up, don't be greedy for those two mouthfuls. Is it worth arguing over such a simple thing to make you blush?

There is also a more controversial question: Can I have sex during menstruation? There is a quarrel online. One group says that as long as you use clean contraception, there will be no problem. The other group says that having sex during menstruation will 100% cause gynecological diseases. Objectively speaking, the current domestic and foreign diagnosis and treatment guidelines do not explicitly prohibit menstrual sex. There are still two core judgment criteria: first, whether both parties have this intention, and second, whether your own physical condition allows it. If you have particularly heavy menstrual flow and severe menstrual cramps, there is definitely no need to join in the fun. If you don’t have any discomfort, it is not a taboo to clean yourself well and wear condoms, and you don’t need to feel any psychological burden at all. Of course, if you have gynecological inflammation, you have to suspend sexual intercourse regardless of whether you are menstruating. This is the bottom line.

Oh, yes, there are a few pitfalls that everyone easily falls into. There is a clear medical basis. No matter what your physical condition is, it is best to pay attention to: The first is not to wash the inside of the vagina with various so-called "private washing liquids specially used for menstruation". The vagina has its own flora balance. Just flushing the vulva with clean water is enough. If you wash it randomly, it will easily lead to vaginitis.； The second is that no matter how large or small the quantity of sanitary napkins is, it is best to change them every two to three hours. Hot and humid environments are the most likely to breed bacteria. Don’t save money to use them. ； Thirdly, don’t force yourself to take medicine for dysmenorrhea. Ibuprofen is really a good thing. Its principle is to inhibit the synthesis of prostaglandins that cause dysmenorrhea. It is not “paralyzing the nerves”. If you only take it for two or three days a month, you will not be dependent on it and it will not hurt your brain. I have met too many girls who are so painful that they vomit and refuse to take medicine. They say that they are afraid of side effects. It is really unnecessary. It is the pain of forced pain that hurts the body the most.

In fact, after doing missionary work for so long, I feel more and more that the most important thing to teach in menstrual health education is never a bunch of rigid rules and regulations, but to teach everyone how to talk to their own bodies. You don’t need to see others running marathons during menstruation to think that you have menstrual cramps, and you don’t have to think that you are abnormal when you see others who dare not touch this or eat that. Your body is more accurate than all popular science and all experience. If you feel tired, just rest. If you want to eat ice, just take a bite. If you feel uncomfortable, go to the hospital in time. It’s that simple.