What is menstrual blood composed of?

Every woman will have menstruation, but most women do not know what menstrual blood is composed of. In fact, menstrual blood is not ordinary blood. It also contains some eggs, so some people will have symptoms of blood clots in their menstrual blood. In addition, there is also some waste from the uterus in the menstrual blood, so menstruation is also a process of detoxification of the body. So what exactly does menstrual blood consist of?

First, let's understand the normal composition of menstruation: blood, endometrial debris, cervical mucus, and sloughed vaginal epithelial cells.

Only the first two can be identified with the naked eye. In the latter two, cervical mucus is mixed with blood, while the sloughed vaginal epithelial cells are small in quantity and size and can only be seen under a microscope.

Therefore, those dark tissue fragments are mainly the endometrium mixed with blood, because the endometrium itself is a whitish translucent membrane, and the dark color is the color of blood.

There may also be small blood clots. In fact, the endometrial cells secrete plasmin with anti-coagulant function, allowing blood and necrotic tissue to flow out of the vagina smoothly, so menstrual blood does not coagulate. Occasional blood clots may be caused by excessive bleeding and the depletion of plasmin.

A short lecture on the causes of menstruation:

1. Menstruation is the periodic shedding and bleeding of the endometrium caused by periodic ovulation of the ovaries and periodic changes in hormone levels.

2. The system that regulates menstruation is called the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis. When it is activated, a series of hormone secretions are initiated, involving many hormones and various feedback regulation mechanisms, which is particularly complex. This chain is referred to as the HPO axis. The menstrual cycle is regulated by this axis. A series of hormones are involved. Various positive and negative feedback mechanisms maintain normal physiological cycles and fertility.

3. Before puberty, the number of follicles decreases from several million to 300,000, and this process is not affected by gonadotropins. The relationship between the follicle and the egg cell is that the egg cell divides for the first time → the granulosa cells surround it to form a follicle. Before puberty, there is no further development, only degeneration. The second division of the egg cell occurs 36 hours before ovulation. Intuitively, the maturation of oocytes has little to do with the maturation of follicles. It takes nearly a year for the follicle to wake up from its dormancy and begin to develop into a mature follicle. It takes about 15 days from follicle maturation to ovulation. Ovulation occurs outside the ovaries (in the abdominal cavity), and the fallopian tube umbrella "picks" them up into the fallopian tube. In order to avoid being tedious when popularizing menstruation knowledge, it is okay to just say that it is discharged into the fallopian tubes.