This post is a part of Periodपाठ, a campaign by Youth Ki Awaaz in collaboration with WSSCC to highlight the need for better menstrual hygiene management in India. Click here to find out more.
This post is a part of Periodपाठ, a campaign by Youth Ki Awaaz in collaboration with WSSCC to highlight the need for better menstrual hygiene management in India. Click here to find out more.
Have you ever felt like the pandemic combined together with the lockdown has disrupted your schedules? I, for one, can vouch for the fact that ever since the pandemic started, all of my routines (work, college, sleep patterns, eating habits- you name it!) became messed up. It has proved to be quite stressful to balance all of it while retaining my mental health at the same time. On top of that, I started to notice that my periods became irregular, a month into the lockdown.
At first, I thought it was just me. When my mother started to complain about her aggravated PMS pain, I started wondering whether it was happening to more menstruators out there. So, I posted a story on Instagram, asking my followers whether they have noticed anything weird about their cycles. Unexpectedly enough, I started receiving innumerable DMs from my friends, colleagues, and acquaintances- all stating weird symptoms that they have noticed about their periods during the lockdown.
People who barely ever had abdominal cramps before or during periods reported that ever since they stopped going out, they started experiencing immense pain and cramping. People with lighter flows started getting heavier flows, and vice versa. For some, the cycles became shorter, and others said that they did not even get their periods for three months at a time.
Weirder symptoms started popping up, with some saying that they got blue marks on their thighs along with tender, itchy breasts just before their periods started. Some experienced changes in PMS symptoms as well, with increased anxiety or mood swings, joint pain, insomnia, and hot and cold flashes.
All of this got me thinking, and after a bit of research, here’s what I found: several gynaecologists have stated that their patients started reporting irregular periods or unusual symptoms during the pandemic. It has been found that while experiencing anxiety or stress, the adrenal glands release cortisol which in turn interfere with the other hormones of the body. Increased levels of cortisol in the body due to stress lead to suppression of the normal reproductive hormones and can disrupt ovulation or lead to amenorrhea (the absence of menstrual cycle).
Some gynaecologists have stated that contracting COVID-19 could also lead to a disrupted menstrual cycle. Alternatively, some have suggested that changes in the menstrual cycle have been due to the hypothalamus, which contains the pituitary gland that releases reproductive hormones such as estrogen and progesterone. The hypothalamus responds to stress, which in turn could inhibit the release of the reproductive hormones, thus resulting in fluctuations in ovulation, resulting in a condition called hypothalamic amenorrhea.