Blood is blood and behaves the same way when it starts to spurt, no matter which wound or orifice it's leaving.
Menstrual blood's a biiiiiiiit different from an open wound.
Menstrual blood is an open wound. When layers of the uterus shed blood capillaries underneath are exposed and bleed. Just like if you scraped you skin off it would bleed. There arent blood valves in the uterus that just turn on when it's time to wash it out once a month. Blood is just blood.
Menstrual blood has fewer blood cells than normal blood and doesn't clot the same. It also carries greater levels of bacteria by comparison to that of an open cut, alongside trace elements of the uterus and estrogenal mucus.
It's about the same as comparing blood from your gums to blood from a scrape.
Blood from your gums is the same as blood from a scrap.
It picks up mouth germs and other surrounding gunk, so someone with a mouth disease who doesn't brush their teeth or some shit will be spitting out other things in combination with it.
All that other stuff gets mixed in *after* the blood has left the veins.
So you're... debating over the blood that's there before it's out of the body entirely?
I was figuring more in a utility basis: What byproduct people have by the time it's 'out there'. If we're to sit here and painstakingly separate the blood from the other mixed in elements then yeah, it's just going to be blood, just how if you use a filter for your water that your water will carry less contaminants.
Also I've never heard the claim menstrual blood has fewer blood cells in it. What is your source for that?
I'd learned more about it when I was still in college from my sexual psych class as well as general word of mouth from one too many period stories over blood flow differences, but that's not really a source.
I've done some general googling to fill in the blanks, and while I've found some vague ones (like '8 Period Myths We're Setting Straight') I've otherwise found the information theming around the following:
How Does It Differ From Regular Blood?
What we think of as strictly “menstrual blood” is, rather, a mix of blood itself, cells from the mucous lining from the vagina, old uterine tissue that has been shed and bacteria that is found in the vaginal flora.
Because of this composition, menstrual blood is not exactly normal blood, but rather blood mixed with secretions, tissue and mucus. The exact composition, makeup, and percentage of each component does, of course, differ from woman to woman, as well as depend on factors such as age, medical history, the thickness of the uterus – even what stage of menstruation a person is on.
Any vaginal secretions that come out with menstrual blood typically are mostly water and electrolytes like sodium and potassium. And, when compared to normal blood, the concentrations of proteins, bilirubin and cholesterol are much lower – in fact, most usual blood-associated substances are less present, aside from water. Iron, hemoglobin, etc. are all much more present in ordinary blood.
What Else Is Not Present in Menstrual Blood
While there are many substances found less in menstrual blood, there are some missing substances that are nowhere to be found for a very important reason – substances that are normally necessary for the flow to coagulate properly. The body wants this mixture of substances to remain liquid and not thicken or harden, both inside and outside of the body. Menstrual blood is not meant to be able to gel up or scab over, whether it remains internal or once you have passed it.
The three elements that normal blood has for coagulation, prothrombin, thrombin and fibrinogen are not present in menstrual blood. Instead, it adds elements to keep it thin. Also, there are less blood platelets than in normal blood, to help keep the flow waterier and more unable to be fully congealed.
If you have better sources though I'd like to see them, not as some sort of challenge but from this not being something I'm like, looking into all the time. Otherwise, by the time a period's being 'collected' by your pad, tampon, or in your case your next meal, you're serving more (and in some ways less) than if you'd just cut into your arm and dripped it on stuff.
Mobthly Menstruation is one of the reasons anemia is more common in bio-femakes than bio-males. We lose blood cells constantly for a few days.
The 'constantly' was more of where I figured the damages were happening.
My ex-fiance had some anemia issues with her time of the month, and another ex of mine had the opposite issue with just some occasional spotting and stomach cramps. There's surprising levels of variations between each woman's period.
Funny I've only ever seen people who were born male challenge the fact that blood from a vagina is the same as blood from an external wound.
Does that make it any more or less valid on it's own?
Ignoring the obvious squick factor over why men, for obvious reasons, would be more squeamish about blood than women, maybe as a matter of averages men feel more reason to ask questions about it from being disconnected from the problem, while women who are stuck dealing with it would rather not think about it. 😏
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