Delayed menstruation is harmful to your health, and these factors are the culprits!

Many women have irregular menstruation, one of which is delayed or early menstruation. Menstruation, also known as the menstrual cycle, is a physiological cycle. We all know that as women, it is very important to protect our bodies, especially whether the menstruation is normal or not is closely related to our lives! Many people experience delayed menstruation. So what are the reasons for delayed menstruation? What should we do when this happens? Let me introduce it to you below, hoping it can help female friends!

Reasons for delayed menstruation

Pregnant

For women of childbearing age who have had sexual life, when their menstruation is delayed, they often doubt whether it is menstruation abnormality or they are pregnant. This problem is a very common phenomenon in daily life.

How to rule out pregnancy and how to determine whether it is a menstrual disease are the first issues that need to be clarified. First, determine whether you are pregnant.

If your menstrual cycle has always been normal, with no signs of delay, and there are some signs of pregnancy, you should test your urine with an early pregnancy test strip on the fifth day after your delayed period (or the fifth day calculated from the start of your period). If the test result is positive, you should undergo a gynecological pelvic examination. If the cervix changes to purple-blue, the uterus is full or enlarged, and there may be accompanying symptoms such as breast tenderness and nausea, you can be diagnosed with pregnancy.

Of course, B-ultrasound can also quickly determine whether you are pregnant. The phenomenon of delayed menstruation after pregnancy, or more precisely, the phenomenon of menstruation stopping, is also physiological.

Side effects of medications

We all know that medicine is poisonous to some extent, so female friends are advised to protect themselves and not take medicine casually. Let’s take a look at the dangers of taking contraceptives for a long time!

Endocrine disorders after long-term use of contraceptives can also cause delayed menstruation. Doctors also found, based on patient feedback, that a new generation of gastrokinetic drug, metoclopramide, also known as domperidone, may also cause this condition.

Since metoclopramide does not easily cross the blood-brain barrier, it is believed that it has no inhibitory effect on central dopamine receptors. Central dopamine receptors are inhibited, resulting in a decrease in the amount of hypothalamic release factors entering the anterior pituitary. As a result, the anterior pituitary secretes less gonadotropin and corticotropin, leading to amenorrhea and delayed ovulation.

It is not recommended to take emergency contraceptive pills unless it is absolutely necessary, as they have more side effects than regular contraceptive pills. Common side effects include nausea, dizziness, headache, fatigue, abdominal pain, breast engorgement and irregular vaginal bleeding, which will improve naturally after stopping the medication.

If used frequently and repeatedly, it can easily cause endocrine disorders, irregular menstrual cycles, and even ectopic pregnancy.

Bleeding after taking emergency contraceptive pills is clinically called withdrawal bleeding, but in fact this bleeding is not menstruation. If taken in the first half of the menstrual cycle, it may cause greater interference with menstruation and vaginal bleeding may occur easily; if taken in the second half of the menstrual cycle, the interference with menstruation will be relatively small.

If the amount of bleeding is similar to normal menstrual flow, you can treat it as a menstrual period and take regular contraceptive methods immediately after the bleeding stops.

If the amount of bleeding is small, no treatment is needed, but you still need to pay attention to contraception until the next menstrual period.

The success rate of emergency contraceptive pills is not 100%. If your period is delayed for more than a week after taking emergency contraceptive pills, you should go to the hospital and take a pregnancy test to determine whether it is a contraceptive failure.

If you experience irregular menstruation due to taking emergency contraceptive pills, it is best to go to the hospital and let the doctor help you develop the correct regulation method.

Mental factors cause delayed menstruation

Excessive mental stress, abnormal emotions such as grief, sadness, irritation, and heartbreak often lead to delayed menstruation, and may be accompanied by breast pain, chest tightness, and irritability. Although we are still not sure how much impact too much stress has on the human body, it can indeed affect women's menstrual patterns.