Hematidrosis

Who says women only sweat…well that, sweat?  People have always find themselves being curious about menstruation, because indeed, this isn’t normal for many people, in ancient cultures, they were afraid of women who were menstruating, because they used to say that everything they touch would be impure,  the grass would whiter away, and many things like that.

I think most of us know that menstruation is nothing but to get rid of the endometrium because there was no pregnancy. The uterus is composed of three layers, the outermost is the perimetrium, the middle layer is the myometrium and the innermost layer: the endometrium.

Each month, the endometrium grows (endometrial hyperplasia) to be prepared to receive the fertilized egg and to begin its maturation, but if this doesn’t happen, then the endometrium is disposed by way of menstruation, by the vaginal conduct.

Now, let’s talk about the anomaly, Dr. Lhéritier wrote once about a young girl who suffered from suppression of menses¹, which, instead of flowing through the natural channels, issued perodically from vesicles on the leg, for 6 months, then the seat of discharge changed to an eruption of the left arm, for a year, and then it changed again and again, until it arrived to the upper eyelid, here it continued for a period of two years.

Now this isn’t all, what about Dr. Haller, who claims to have met 18 women who menstruated from the skin. And Dr. Parrot confirmed the existence of these cases. I’d like to share the story of Dr. Chambers, who speaks of bloody sweat occurring periodically in a woman of twenty-seven years. The intervals, however, were occasionally but a week or a fortnight, and the exudation wasn’t confined to any one locality.

Dr. D´Andradé tells us about a healthy Parsee lady, 18 years old, who menstruated regularly from 13 to 15 years; the catamenia² then became irregular and she started suffering occasional hemorrhages from the gums and nose, together with attacks of hematemesis³. The menstruation returned to normal, but she never became pregnant, and later, blood issued from the healthy skin of the left breast and right forearm, recurring every month or two, and finally additional dermal hemorrhage developed on the forehead.

Microscopic evaluation of the exuded blood showed usual components present. There are two somewhat similar cases spoken in French literature, for example, the first was that of a young lady, who after ten years’ suppression of the menstrual discharge, exhibited the flow from a vesicular eruption of the finger, and the other case was quite peculiar, the woman being a prostitute, who menstruated from time to time through spots, the size of a silver dollar, developing on the breast, buttocks, back, axilla, and epigastrium.

There are many cases like these around the world, I’m telling you about just a few of them, some people would even say that sweating blood is demoniac, some of them may even bleed through the eyes. This is just an anomaly of the human body, nothing to be scared of.

1- Menses is the monthly flow of blood and cellular debris from the uterus that begins at puberty and ceases at menopause.

2- Catamenia (menses) A term used frequently to designate age at onset of menses.

3- Hematemesis is the vomiting of blood. The source is generally the upper gastrointestinal tract.