The taboo round durations and menstruation is nonetheless, sadly, a factor. Take into account this: When was the final time you, an individual with a uterus, loudly introduced to your coworkers that you simply wanted a tampon, thanked the one that gave you one, after which wagged it round in your hand en path to the toilet? Chances are high, you discreetly requested your work bestie for one after which quickly shoved the package deal into your pocket. As soon as mentioned menstrual product was in place, you in all probability tried to overlook it—and the truth that you’re having your interval—completely.

However as Allison Ok. Rodgers, MD, an ob-gyn and endocrinologist with the Fertility Facilities of Illinois, tells SELF, in case you’re not desirous about your movement, you’re doing all of your well being an enormous disservice. “A interval is sort of a fifth very important signal,” she explains. “If somebody isn’t getting a interval, or it is irregular or painful or heavy, it makes me surprise what’s incorrect.”

Plus, as Dr. Rodgers factors out, lots of people don’t even understand they’re overlooking menstruation. “Persons are overextended with their jobs, households, and obligations. So a lot of my sufferers simply don’t discover it vital sufficient to recollect or simply don’t understand the significance of a interval.”

Listed below are six main well being points an absent, irregular, or extraordinarily heavy or painful interval can reveal (other than the apparent).

1. You’re tremendous harassed.

Whereas no person’s cycle seems precisely the identical, a usually wholesome individual will bleed for 2 to seven days each 21 to 35 days. In response to Dr. Rodgers, your interval is like the ultimate act of a symphony, one pushed by “an orchestra of hormones launched from the ovaries and pituitary glands.” These hormones make your uterine partitions thicker so it’s simpler for an egg to implant itself and result in a being pregnant. (We’ll name that the crescendo on this musical analogy.) When there’s no sperm to fertilize the egg, the uterine lining sheds, and voilà! There shall be blood!

However, as Dr. Rodgers says, “If there’s one thing incorrect, our physique shuts off replica as a result of it doesn’t really feel prefer it’s wholesome sufficient to assist a being pregnant.”

“Replica within the animal world occurs when the animal is protected and guarded,” Lubna Pal, MD, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale, tells SELF. “What occurs once you stress an animal? Their replica shuts down.” She notes that people are not any exception right here—once you’re tense, you may really feel the consequences of that menstrually: Some analysis on individuals with uteruses in high-stress jobs discovered it may end up in shorter (and generally longer), or fully absent, bleeding. Plus, as SELF has beforehand reported, stress may trigger sleep points, bowel issues, hair loss, and an elevated threat of coronary heart illness, hypertension, sort 2 diabetes, arthritis, and nervousness issues.

2. You’re exercising too onerous.

Whereas nervousness and despair can completely stress you (and, by affiliation, your ovaries) out, Dr. Rodgers notes that bodily rigidity can have the identical impact, notably in case you have quickly misplaced weight or aren’t taking in sufficient energy. “In case you are in a hunger state, you are attempting to outlive,” Dr. Rodgers says. “In an excessive weight reduction state of affairs, your physique isn’t going to expend power that it doesn’t must to maintain you alive. It is aware of you’re not wholesome sufficient to hold a child, so your reproductive system shuts off.”