On the topic of menstrual bleeding.

I promised myself if I could finish my work for today I'll do a little blogging so here's another trivia for you readers!

Unfortunately for male readers, this trivia shall be yet another female related trivia. =p

We all know (or at least tt's what i presume) female humans menstruate. What I want to know is whether other female mammals also menstruate. After some research, I came to some amazing revelations! Before I move on to those, the answer to the first question is: yes and no. Some female mammals menstruate while others don't. Read on, I'll explain myself.

Firstly, according to this website along with many other websites:

Only humans, apes and some monkeys menstruate. Other mammals like dogs and cats sometimes will bleed a little when they are in heat, which is when they ovulate and mate, but they do not have menstrual cycles. Having a menstrual cycle means you do not go into heat. Because of this, humans can mate whenever they want, and have babies at any time of the year.

So evidently there are animals that do menstruate. But then comes a problem: I'm wondering, if animals do menstruate, then they wouldn't they bleed? And leaving a trail of blood while traversing around isn't very discreet, right? Wouldn't they get found out by predators easily? So how?

This is where the interesting bit starts.

Apparently,

"ovulation need not be accompanied by often painful and prolonged menstruation; no haemorrhage or rupture of blood-vessels is natural and normal." [link]

After consulting several websites, I realised that the menstrual bleeding that many women faces arent really a natural or healthy thing! In fact, a woman can experience no bleeding at all and be perfectly healthy and be able to give birth!

This particular website is very enlightening.

Here's what the article says:

During the days before a woman ovulates, the lining of the womb - the endometrium - thickens in preparation for a possible conception. If the egg released at ovulation passes through the womb unfertilized, the thickened endometrial tissues are not needed - and in a truly healthy woman, as in animals in their wild state, those tissues are mostly reabsorbed. What remains is expelled over a short period of time as a slight mucus discharge.

The author claims that

It has also been long observed that not only do some apparently healthy women, even in our culture, never menstruate, but that non-menstruating women can be fertile and have healthy children. That is, ovulation does not require menstruation.

In fact, coming to the first conclusion that only humans, apes and some monkeys menstruate, it should be noted that

"animals in the wild, with the exception of certain apes, pass through periodic seasons of 'heat' without any noticeable discharge of blood, whereas domesticated animals do menstruate, as a result of confinement, overfeeding, and sexual overactivity." [link]

Amazingly, menstrual bleeding is actually a hemorrhage and thus not a natural condition. It occurs because of our modern diets which are not suited for our bodies.

The human body is actually constitutionally adapted to a diet of raw fruits, vegetables and nuts. Only with proper diet and right living will women be healthy and cease to bleed. The same thing applies for animals, because we feed them with high protein food, they menstruate, otherwise, their wild counterparts do not menstruate.

Another article here explains how the hemorrhage in women occurs.

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Interesting! I was rather surprised that the norm that women menstruate was not really normal. Instead, it is an unhealthy condition brought about by our lifestyles and diets. Hemorrhage! oh dear.

I wonder why no one really tell us this. That bleeding every month is not a natural thing to be doing. Perhaps no one really knew.... But now you and I do!