Menorrahagia and homeopathy- II

Causes of menorrhagia:

            The causes for menorrhagia differs from woman to woman based on age and other factors. In women under 21 years of age having excessive bleeding during menstruation is due to anovulatory cycle which would go normal after some cycles when the hormone secretion is in the normal rhythmic cycle.

 

         The causes are broadly classified into the following groups:

• General cause: The general causes responsible for menorrhagia acts as a whole. They are given below 

             1. Hormonal cause: When the hypothalamo- pituitary ovarian axis is not working well as one unit it will leads to disturbance. (See normal physiology above). The hormone necessary for the ovulation and Corpus luteum maintainence like Follicle stimulating hormone, leutinizing hormone are disturbed. Other than that the hormone which changes the normal cycle and also responsible for increase flow are thyroid hormone, adrenal hormone, etc.

            2.Blood dyscrasia: If there is defectiveness present in the blood clotting mechanism also leads to menorrhagia. Leukemia, thromobocytopenis, and even severe anemia would also result in heavy menstrual flow..

         

           3. Other general causes are infections like tuberculosis(it is common in developing countries than developed nations) and other local infections of genital tract would also be the reason for menorrhagia. 

• Pelvic causes:  Any abnormalities in pelvic structure or any organs will also results in heavy menstrual flow. Other than it, the diseases in any reproductive organs like ovaries, uterus also leads to menorrhagia. 

          1.Uterine fibroids or polyps increase the endometrial surface and when there is the time for menstrual flow, over shedding of the endometrium will results in excessive blood flow.

          2. Ovaries having chocolate cyst, PCOD, endometriosis also an important reason in menorrhagia in women in the reproductive age.

          3. Pelvic inflammatory disease(PID), inflammation of fallopian tube are other important reasons which should not be left out.

• Iatrogenic causes:  If woman is under the treatment of o estrogen and progesterone pills leads to heavy blood loss during menses. While taking hormone pills for treating any reasons or even to reduce increased blood loss, would result in withdrawal bleeding when the pills are stopped.
• Intra Uterine device:  Many women forget to reveal this fact and get confusing on finding the reason for the menorrhagia. As the intra uterine devices have the hormones coated and it disturbs the mucosa of the uterine wall induce more blood loss during cycles in initial period soon after its insertion. 

Now you will be clear about the causes for menorrhagia. Next we will learn about the list of homeopathic remedies which acts well and treat menorrhagia in next post.

          

Menorrahagia and homeopathy -I

Menorrahagia is one of the most common problems faced by women during the reproductive age. According to World Health Organization (WHO) about 18 million women in the age between 30-55 years are found to face the problem of menorrahagia. It is essential to know about the basic of menstruation and the problems which are commonly happened during the regular cycle. Before explaining about the treatment of menorrahagia with the homeopathic medicines it is good to know the basics of menorrahagia and the causes producing it. I will explain about the basic here.
In medical terms, menorrahagia is defined as regular cyclic bleeding which is excessive in amount or duration. The bleeding is considered to be normal when there is 50 to 80 ml of blood loss during menstruation or the duration of the blood flow should not exceed 7 days.
It is difficult to find the menorrahagia in term of quantity of blood loss. Hence it is good to calculate based on the number of tampon or pads used and the duration of the one tampon or pad used. It is the indirect means to calculate the quantity of blood lost during the day of using.

Normal Physiology of menstruation:
For normal menstruation in a female, hypothalamus, pituitary, ovary acts together as one unit. Hypothalamus release Gonodotrophin releasing Hormone (GnRH). The hormone acts in the anterior pituitary gland and helps to release Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Luteinizing Hormone (LH). The FSH and LH produce and maintain the “follicular phase” in ovaries and ‘Proliferative phase’ in uterus.
Follicular stimulating hormone induces the growth of the follicles in the ovaries. But one major follicle grows more than the other follicle which is named as ‘Primordial follicle’. Luteinizing hormone acts along with FSH for follicle maturation and induces the secretion of estrogen from ovary as 17β- Estradiol. Estrogen thus produced inhibits the secretion of FSH hormone and thus stopping growth of the other follicles and the estrogen is responsible for increasing the secretion of LH. The most important work of Estrogen is to change the uterus for proliferative stage and it is called ‘Proliferative phase’ in the uterus. The Secretory phase is essential which helps in increasing blood supply to the uterus and also the uterus proliferation for the future when there is implantation of the fertilized ovum reaches the uterus wall. LH hormone acts at the same time and increases the Oestradiol secretion and induces the follicle to rupture and form corpus luteum and ovum is released.
After the ovum is released the remaining part of the primordial follicle is named as ‘Corpus luteum’. Corpus luteum has the major function if the ovum is fertilized and the pregnancy is maintained. It secretes Progesterone hormone. Progesterone hormone helps in producing ‘Secretory phase’ in uterus. It helps in maintaining and increasing the blood vascularity of the uterus. Progesterone inhibits the LH secretion from pituitary gland.
When there is no fertilized ovum to settle in the wall of the uterus, Oestrogen and Progesterone declines slowly and reach the minimal level in blood leads to menstruation. A normal menstrual cycle is 21-35 days duration and the amount of blood flow is about 25-80ml in average is considered to be normal.

Let us learn about Causes of Menorrhagia in following post.

Source: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/255540-overview