The difference between pregnancy bleeding and menstruation

Every woman has a menstrual period every month. As long as the menstrual period is regular, everyone will know when it should come. However, due to physical reasons, some women are not sure whether it is pregnancy bleeding or menstruation when they have vaginal bleeding, which makes them very distressed. So let us introduce to you the difference between pregnancy bleeding and menstruation.

Causes of bleeding during pregnancy

Before the placenta is fully formed, embryo implantation is not stable, so many factors can cause miscarriage. When miscarriage occurs, the embryo and the uterine wall will separate to varying degrees. Once the blood vessels at the separation surface rupture, vaginal bleeding symptoms will occur. According to a medical research statistic, more than 50% of pregnant women can safely get through the early pregnancy bleeding and successfully continue the pregnancy; about 30% of pregnant women may experience miscarriage; and nearly 10% of pregnant women may have ectopic pregnancy or other problems. Some pregnant women worry that if they have abnormal vaginal bleeding in early pregnancy, the baby will be unhealthy after they successfully preserve the fetus. Many studies have shown that more than half of miscarriages are caused by abnormalities in the embryo itself. This is a kind of natural selection. If the pregnancy can continue, the fetus is generally normal.

After vaginal bleeding occurs in early pregnancy, if the pregnancy can continue successfully and the baby is born, the proportion of fetuses with congenital abnormalities does not increase.

In fact, bleeding during pregnancy is also a common clinical condition, which can be caused by many reasons. Bleeding during pregnancy can be divided into the following situations according to the source of bleeding:

Menstrual period comes

In order to explain this issue, we must first understand the structure and physiological functions of female reproductive organs.

The female internal reproductive organs consist of the ovaries, uterus, and fallopian tubes. The main function of the ovaries is to produce eggs and synthesize ovarian hormones, while the uterus and fallopian tubes are reproductive organs. The ovaries contain hundreds of thousands of follicles, each of which contains one egg.

Before puberty, the follicles are essentially non-functional. During puberty, under the action of gonadotropin from the anterior pituitary gland, immature follicles gradually develop and synthesize estrogen. When the follicle matures and ovulates, the follicle wall collapses, the cells become larger and yellower, and are called the corpus luteum. It synthesizes estrogen and produces progesterone.

As the ovaries change, the endometrium is also affected and undergoes corresponding cyclical changes. Estrogen causes the endometrium to thicken, the endometrial cells to increase in number and size, and the arterioles in the interstitium to become more tortuous and spiral, which is called the proliferative endometrium. After ovulation, due to the combined effects of estrogen and progesterone, the endometrium becomes edematous, the glands produce a large amount of mucus and glycogen, and the thickness of the endometrium increases from 1 mm to 6 mm, which is called the secretory endometrium.

If the egg released at this time is fertilized, the fertilized egg is transported to the uterus through the fallopian tube for development, which is called pregnancy. The pregnancy tissue synthesizes a chorionic gonadotropin, which supports the continued development of the corpus luteum of the ovary. If the egg is not fertilized, the corpus luteum will atrophy and stop secreting estrogen and progesterone about 14 days after ovulation. At this time, the blood vessels in the endometrium will contract, the endometrium will necrotize and fall off, causing bleeding and forming menstruation.

Therefore, the length of the menstrual cycle depends on the length of the ovarian cycle, which is generally 21-30 days, but varies from person to person, and may be 23-45 days, or even 3 months or half a year as a cycle. As long as it is regular, it is generally considered normal menstruation.