When women have their period, it is common for them to have mood swings, cramps, discomfort and as if that were not enough, there are also times when they need to go to the bathroom more. Every month a woman notices the changes in her body because of her period in her menstrual cycle. But why does this happen?
Why do we go to the bathroom more when we have our period?
- The prostaglandins. The answer lies in the prostaglandins, they are in charge of telling the uterus to contract and expel the lining of the uterus at the end of the menstrual cycle and thus the rule occurs. Prostaglandins are hormones that you release during the first days of your period, but they don’t just stay in the uterus… some of these hormones also reach the intestine, causing it to contract and need to go to the bathroom more.
- But this does not happen to all women. Not all women need to go to the bathroom because of prostaglandins since in other women it affects them as nausea and not as a desire to ‘evacuate’. Other women have diarrhea and others just don’t bother it at all.
- Progesterone. Although it is also possible that it is because of progesterone because the levels drop. This hormone varies in levels depending on the period you are in. Normally, in the middle of the cycle, a woman’s progesterone levels are higher and just before the period they drop repeatedly and thanks to this the period begins. Progesterone can also help make you feel like you have to go to the bathroom all the time.
- Birth control pills. A woman’s birth control can have gastrointestinal effects just before her ‘period’. Many birth control pills have a set of placebo pills that do not have any hormones and are only supposed to be taken by women once per cycle. Most modern birth control pills have some form of synthetic progesterone in them, so when women take placebo pills, progesterone levels drop suddenly and women need to go to the bathroom more often.
