Has this one weird menstrual thing happened to you?

January 13, 2017 7:18 PM

I recently had a massage that caused my menstrual flow to massively increase for the duration of the massage. Is this a thing?

Around Christmas, I had a massage for the first time after some very stressful and emotionally weighty events (election, unexpected death of friend), and at the tail end of my period. Normally, my flow is very light at that point, but in the 90 minute massage, I overflowed a super plus tampon and left a moderate crime scene on the table, my legs, and the floor.

Well, stress and bodies and massage, okay, weird things happen, I thought.

But now a good friend of mine just told me she had basically the same experience with her massage this evening. She also has been going through very stressful stuff.

This has never happened to either of us before.

So this made me wonder: Is this a thing? Are you a person who menstruates and have experienced this?

posted by spindrifter to Health & Fitness (7 answers total)

I'm not a massage therapist.

Could the pressure from the massage (I assume the therapist pressed on your lower back into the massage table) have manipulated your uterus into dislodging endometrium?
posted by pintapicasso at 7:35 PM on January 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Working certain acupressure points (Three Yin Crossing, aka spleen 6, which is near your ankle, comes to mind) can increase menstrual blood flow. Basically, any of the known "pregnancy endangerment sites" (which are avoided when working on pregnant clients because they can trigger premature labor in a pregnancy that's 7-8 months along) can increase flow.
posted by furtive_jackanapes at 7:51 PM on January 13, 2017 [13 favorites]

LMT here. My theory is that the stress-relieving properties of massage affected the uterus, which decided to do its thing. I have no data to back this up; just lots of time on and over the table.

There's not really any way a therapist would be able to access the uterus when the person is prone (maybe when in supine position, but that would be invasive and not within the general massage protocols).
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 8:43 PM on January 13, 2017

Lying face down is probably a big factor too.
posted by sexyrobot at 10:48 PM on January 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

As a massage therapist I find this slightly unusual as I Haven't had this with clients before.
Due to being under an increased amount of stress - stress can manifest itself in strange ways and it could have been your bodies way in which it released some of the stress through the massage.
Naturally massage is used for many things partly being for circulation which could be the reason it effected your menstrual flow in such a way.
I don't think there is any reason or cause to be alarmed as I think it's just one of those things that happens every now and again I hope this helped in some way :) x
posted by pixiesae at 3:20 AM on January 14, 2017

No, but it has happened to my sinuses with a face massage. I had no idea I could possibly have had that much liquid inside my nose, but when the massage was over and I stood up there was an astonishing flow, far more clear thin fluid than I had ever seen before.

Is it possible that you experienced an orgasm during the massage? Some people do, and some people have orgasms without knowing it since they are such minor ones. If you had an orgasm your uterus could have contracted and your cervix might have dropped and opened and the result been the blood gush.

I do know that an orgasm during my period means a noticable increase in blood and I have always assumed this is why.
posted by Jane the Brown at 6:23 AM on January 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I can think of a variety of mechanisms for it, and neither of us is particularly concerned. The question was more to find out if this is a more common experience than we previously knew!
posted by spindrifter at 9:00 AM on January 14, 2017