Why having sex during menses may cause infertility
Many women experience severe pain whenever they are having their menstrual flow. Sometimes, the pain is due to endometriosis that is said to occur because the cells of the womb have been dislodged from their position to other parts of the pelvic region. This is one condition, experts say, may be due to having sex during menses, reports Sade Oguntola.
When you’ve been trying to get pregnant for a long time, it can have strong effect on your sexual relationship.
Infertility can spur arguments between couples, whether it’s on whether or not to keep trying, or how many treatments to try. The financial cost of infertility can add tremendous strain to a relationship.
If getting pregnant has been a challenge for you and your partner, you’re not alone. Many couples are infertile too. If you’ve been trying to conceive for more than a year, there’s a chance that something may be interfering with your efforts to have a child. Infertility may be due to a single cause in either you or your partner, or a combination of factors that may prevent a pregnancy from occurring or continuing.
In problems with ovulation account for most cases of infertility in women. Without ovulation, there are no eggs to be fertilised. Some signs that a woman is not ovulating normally include irregular or absent menstrual periods. In addition, some problems related to menses such as endometriosis are becoming causes of infertility that more women may have to think about because of some common myths like having sex when they have their menstrual flow on.
According to Dr. Kayode Afolabi, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, Oyo State, cases of endometriosis are not too common in black people, but more of a problem in whites.
Endometriosis could really be very terrible in people with the problem. Its associated pain could be very terrible. Initially, the pain will be occurring with the menstrual flow. But later when the endometriosis has become chronic and has led to other complications like adhesion in the pelvic region, the pain would be persistent throughout the month, but only getting worse during the menses. The pain could really be debilitating.”
For now, there is no cure for endometriosis and it can damage the fertility of women with the problem. The problem arises when cells normally found in the womb lining attach themselves to other parts of the pelvic area, causing scar tissue called adhesions, pain, bowel obstructions, bladder problems and infertility. Infertility is a big issue in Africa.
Dr. Afolabi said there are instances that women would think they have menstrual pain whereas what is really responsible for their pain is endometriosis. “Endometriosis occurs when you have cells of the womb getting dislodged into other parts of the female pelvic and then, these cells which actually are the cells responsible for menstrual flow every month, still behave as if they are still in the womb.
“They will be producing menses every month and this would be accumulating in that place where the cells have dislodged to and causing a lot of problems, particularly pelvic pain. Sometimes, it may become a mass within the walls of the womb of the ovaries. There are cases of it extending to other parts of the body, beyond the pelvic, causing debilitating or chronic pains that the individual affected may require to have strong pain relieving medications to cope with rather than the alleged analgesics that may occur with any component of tomatoes.
Menstrual pains are basically of two types. According to Dr. Afolabi, the first type is that referred to as primary dysmenorrheal, which is like a normal component of menstrual flow because it is usually mild and it comes a few days or hours before the menstrual flow. The pain usuaully ceases immediately the menses started to flow. This is only suggestive that the person had ovulated.
The second type of menstrual pain is referred to as secondary dysmenorrheal and is due to one kind of disease condition or the other. One of its causes includes endometriosis “Endometriosis is not really one of the major causes of secondary dysmenorrheal in Nigeria. The major causes are pelvic infection, pelvic cancers and fibroid.”
“This is the basic reason why a woman with menstrual pain would have to see a medical doctor who would then determine the type of menstrual pain she is having and prescribe appropriate treatment or remedy.”
Dr. Afolabi said however that Nigerian women should be mindful of endometriosis, stressing that this is one reason doctors discourage having sex during menses. “We discourage having sex during menses because the cells lining the womb forms part of the menstrual flow. It is the same cells that are responsible for endometriosis and when they get dislodged during the menstrual flow, they can easily get implanted in other parts of the pelvic when the menstrual flow is blocked during sex.
“Anything that affects the flow of the menses, that prevents it from flowing down freely or that pushes the flow back into the womb through the fallopian tube could cause the problem. Even a five- minute sex can push the menstrual flow through the fallopian tube into the pelvic and then, these cells can become easily implanted in the pelvic region to become an endometriosis cyst. The cyst would be getting bigger monthly and later become a big problem,” he said.
There are many things people associated as myths, including that which said having sex during menses is safe. According to Dr. Afolabi, having sex during menses is not safe and is highly unhygienic for the man or the woman. Apart from the possibility of endometriosis, he said that this could expose both the man and the woman to the risk of also contracting HIV/AIDS. “Considering the issue of HIV/AIDS, we know that the virus can be present in body fluids like vaginal fluids, menses and blood. So if you have sex during that period, that means the chances of the man being infected with HIV are higher. Even if the woman does not have HIV, the chances of germs entering into her vaginal and gaining access into her womb are higher when she is menstruating. This predisposes her to many sexually transmitted infections and pelvic infections because the menstrual blood is a good medium for these germs to thrive very well.”
Dr. Afolabi stressed that mothers should also take menstrual pain in their daughters as a problem because it could affect their academic performance in school as well as psychologically. A case where it is due to an infection, he said, it could also affect their chances of having children.
Source: Nigerian tribune
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