What causes a 3-day period? Is it normal? Discover the 19 potential causes, from pregnancy to medication side effects, and learn when to see your doctor.

Understanding the Normal Menstrual Cycle

The normal menstrual cycle can vary greatly from person to person. Periods typically last anywhere from 3 to 7 days, but what’s considered “normal” is ultimately determined by your own personal menstrual cycle. If your period suddenly changes in duration, it may be due to a variety of factors, including changes in your schedule, birth control, pregnancy, or stress.

Causes of Shorter or Irregular Periods

Puberty

During puberty, hormone levels fluctuate, leading to irregular periods that may be shorter or longer than usual. It can take a few years for these hormones to establish a regular schedule.

Perimenopause

Perimenopause is the transition period leading up to menopause. During this time, hormone production decreases, causing periods to become irregular. Your periods may be shorter or longer than normal, and you may experience missed periods or light/heavy bleeding.

Stress

Stress can take a toll on your body, including your hormone production. When stress affects your hormone levels, it can lead to irregular or shorter periods. Other symptoms of stress include anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, and weight loss.

Excessive Exercise or Athletic Activity

Excessive physical activity can cause your body to enter “starvation mode,” prioritizing critical functions like keeping your heart beating over non-essential functions like reproductive hormone production. This can result in irregular or missed periods, as well as mood swings, fatigue, and unintentional weight loss.

Significant Weight Changes

Significant weight gain or loss can disrupt your normal hormone levels and impact your menstrual cycle. Excess body fat can affect estrogen levels, while extreme calorie restriction can disrupt reproductive hormone production.

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders that involve extreme calorie restriction can affect the body’s ability to produce reproductive hormones. A very low body fat percentage can also disrupt normal hormone levels, leading to irregular, short, or missed periods.

Medications and Irregular Periods

Hormonal Birth Control

When starting or switching hormonal birth control methods, it’s normal to experience changes in your menstrual cycle, including shorter or irregular periods, for the first few months as your body adjusts to the new medication.

Other Prescription Medications

Certain prescription medications, such as those used to treat thyroid disease, anxiety, epilepsy, and inflammation, can interfere with your body’s hormones and cause irregular periods.

Medical Conditions and Shorter Periods

Ectopic Pregnancy

An ectopic pregnancy, where a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, can cause vaginal bleeding that may be mistaken for a period. Other signs of an ectopic pregnancy include abdominal pain, dizziness, and shoulder pain.

Implantation Bleeding

Implantation, when a fertilized egg embeds in the uterine wall, can sometimes cause minor vaginal bleeding that may be mistaken for a short period. Implantation often occurs before a missed period and other pregnancy symptoms develop.

Miscarriage

Miscarriages can occur before a woman even knows she’s pregnant, and the resulting bleeding may be mistaken for a period. Other miscarriage symptoms include spotting, passing fluid or tissue, and abdominal pain.

Pregnancy

During pregnancy, periods stop, but some women may experience spotting or light bleeding that could be confused with a short period.

When to See a Doctor

If your period suddenly changes in duration or you experience any other concerning symptoms, it’s a good idea to consult your healthcare provider. They can help determine the underlying cause and provide appropriate treatment or guidance.

Key Takeaways

• A “normal” period is whatever is typical for you, and can range from 3 to 7 days.
• Shorter or irregular periods can be caused by a variety of factors, including puberty, perimenopause, stress, excessive exercise, weight changes, and certain medications or medical conditions.
• If you experience sudden changes in your menstrual cycle or other concerning symptoms, it’s important to see your doctor for evaluation and treatment.

Pregnancy and 19 Other Causes, Symptoms to Watch For

Periods can last anywhere from three to seven days, but your “normal” period is whatever is typical for you. If it suddenly changes, it may be due to a change in schedule, birth control, pregnancy, or stress.

Here’s what to watch for and when to see your doctor.

It’s normal for your menstrual cycle to change at different times in your life.

Puberty

During puberty, your hormone levels begin to fluctuate on a monthly cycle. It takes a few years for these hormones to develop a regular schedule. In the meantime, they can be irregular, leading to shorter or longer periods.

Other menstrual symptoms common during puberty include:

• irregular periods
• light or heavy bleeding
• missed periods
• two periods per month

Perimenopause

Perimenopause is the time leading up to your final period. During this time, your hormone production decreases and periods typically become irregular.

Your periods may be shorter or longer than usual. You may also experience:

• missed periods
• light or heavy bleeding
• irregular periods
• fewer periods per year

Changes in your daily routine can impact your hormone levels and cause irregular periods.

Stress

Stress takes a toll on your whole body, including your ability to produce hormones. When your hormone levels are affected by stress, it isn’t uncommon for your period to become irregular. This may include less days spent bleeding.

Other symptoms of stress include:

• anxiety
• fatigue
• insomnia
• weight loss

Excessive exercise or athletic activity

When you exercise excessively, it’s easy to burn more calories than you eat. If this goes on for weeks or months, your body will enter starvation mode.

Your body will begin to use all of its remaining fuel (calories) to perform critical functions, like keeping your heart beating, at the expensive of other functions, like producing reproductive hormones.

When your hormone levels decrease, it can cause irregular or missed periods.

Excessive physical activity can also cause:

• mood swings
• tiring more easily
• getting sick more often
• unintentional weight loss

Significant weight changes

Any significant changes in weight can disrupt your normal hormone levels. Following gastric bypass surgery and extreme dieting, many women experience irregular periods.

Excess body fat can also affect estrogen levels, which means obesity can impact your menstrual cycle.

Other side effects of major weight changes include:

• headaches
• fatigue
• missed periods

Eating disorder

Eating disorders that involve extreme calorie restriction can affect the body’s ability to produce reproductive hormones. A very low body fat percentage can also disrupt normal hormone levels. This can cause irregular, short, or missed periods.

Other symptoms of eating disorders include:

• extreme thinness
• low self-esteem
• distorted body image

Many common medications can affect your hormone levels and change your menstrual cycle.

Hormonal birth control

Hormonal birth control methods contain hormones that directly affect when and how you ovulate. When you start birth control for the first time or switch to a different kind, it’s normal to experience some changes to your menstrual cycle.

You may experience shorter periods or irregular periods for a few months, until your body gets used to the new medication.

Other side effects commonly seen with the pill, the birth control shot, and the hormonal IUD include:

• cramping
• spotting
• headaches

Other medications

Certain prescription medications can interfere with your body’s hormones and cause irregular periods.

Medications that cause irregular periods include those for:

• thyroid disease
• anxiety
• epilepsy
• inflammation

There are several underlying conditions that can affect your hormone levels and cause you to have shorter periods than normal.

Ectopic pregnancy

An ectopic pregnancy happens when a fertilized egg implants itself in an area of the body other than the uterus. Ectopic pregnancies often cause vaginal bleeding that may be mistaken for a period.

Other signs of an ectopic pregnancy include:

• abdominal pain
• dizziness
• shoulder pain

Implantation

Implantation is when a fertilized egg embeds itself in the wall of your uterus. It occurs about one to two weeks after inception. In some cases, it can cause minor vaginal bleeding that may be mistaken for a short period.

Implantation often occurs before you miss a period and develop other symptoms of pregnancy.

Miscarriage

A miscarriage is an event that results in the loss of embryonic tissue or a fetus during pregnancy. Miscarriages often take place before women know that they’re pregnant, which is why they’re often mistaken for periods.

A short, unexpected period could be a miscarriage.

Other symptoms of miscarriage include:

• spotting or bleeding
• passing fluid or tissue from the vagina
• abdominal pain

Pregnancy

Periods stop during pregnancy, but it isn’t unusual for there to be spotting or light bleeding in the first trimester of pregnancy. Up to one in four women experience some bleeding during pregnancy.

Other symptoms of pregnancy include:

• sore or swollen breasts
• nausea
• vomiting
• missed period
• cravings or aversion to foods or smells

Breastfeeding

The hormone that helps you to produce breastmilk, prolactin, also stops you from ovulating. If you’re breastfeeding day and night, your period may not return for several months after giving birth.

When your period does return, it may be irregular and shorter or longer than usual.

When breastfeeding, you may also experience:

• missed periods
• months between periods
• changes in period duration
• light bleeding or spotting at first

Ovarian cyst

An ovarian cyst is a fluid-filled sac inside the ovary. While these cysts aren’t cancerous, they can sometimes be painful or cause bleeding. A bleeding cyst may be mistaken for a short period.

Most ovarian cysts have no symptoms, but they can sometimes cause abdominal pain, particularly if they’re large or if they rupture.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)

PCOS can cause your body to produce more male sex hormones than normal. This hormonal imbalance often causes irregular periods, missed periods, or short periods.

Other symptoms of PCOS include:

• unwanted or excessive facial hair
• acne
• deeper voice
• difficulty getting pregnant

Thyroid disorder

Thyroid disorders cause the body to produce too much or too little thyroid hormone. Thyroid disease affects about one in eight women.

Thyroid hormone plays an important role in your menstrual cycle and can cause a variety of menstrual irregularities, including short periods.

Symptoms of thyroid disorder vary depending on which type you have, but may include:

• weight loss or gain
• trouble sleeping or sleepiness
• fast heart rate or slow heart rate
• lighter or heavier than normal periods

Rarely, short periods are caused by a more serious condition.

Premature ovarian failure (POF)

POF is when you go into early menopause. POF is rare, affecting only 1 in 1,000 women under the age of 29 and 1 in 100 women between ages 30 and 39.

If your ovaries fail, it means you no longer produce the necessary hormones to become pregnant. Your periods may become irregular and then stop entirely. POF may also cause:

• hot flashes
• missed periods
• irregular periods
• vaginal dryness

Asherman syndrome

Asherman syndrome is a rare condition in which scar tissue develops in the uterus. This typically presents after a surgical procedure.

Uterine scar tissue may block the flow of your period, causing irregular or missed periods.

Other symptoms include:

• missed periods
• difficult conceiving
• miscarriages
• cramping without bleeding

Cervical stenosis

Cervical stenosis is the abnormal narrowing of the cervix, which is very rare. It typically happens as a complication of surgery. When the cervix narrows, your mensural flow is obstructed. It may cause missed periods and abdominal pain.

Sheehan’s syndrome

Sheehan’s syndrome is a complication of childbirth that occurs when a woman loses large amounts of blood or experiences severe low blood pressure. It’s very rare in advanced countries where people have access to medical treatment.

Sheehan’s syndrome interferes with the body’s ability to produce pituitary hormones. Low hormone levels lead to absent or infrequent periods.

Other symptoms include:

• difficulty breastfeeding
• difficulty regrowing shaved pubic hair
• low blood pressure
• weight gain
• fatigue

If you’re pregnant or suspect you could be pregnant, you should seek emergency medical treatment if you have any unusual bleeding.

Otherwise, you can typically wait two to three months before seeing your doctor. This will allow your menstrual cycle time to reset and return to normal.

Consider tracking your periods during this time. Make sure you note your period’s start and stop dates, along with details about when bleeding is heavy or light. Your doctor can use this information to help make a diagnosis.

One or two days of periods? Read 5 causes of shorter periods

The menstrual cycle is no less than a puzzle. You may anticipate something, but something else may happen. This is because your cycle’s length might vary, sometimes even month to month, depending on a wide range of different factors. Given that a period usually lasts between 4 and 8 days, a sudden change in the menstrual cycle may worry you. So, are you going through shorter periods that only last a day or two? Let’s find out why it may be so!

Dr Asha Hiremath, Consultant – Obstetrician, Gynaecologist and Laparoscopic Surgeon, Motherhood Hospital, Indiranagar, Bengaluru, spoke to Health Shots about the shorter menstrual cycle problem and the reasons behind it.

Dr Hiremath says, “For those of you who have been experiencing a sudden shortened menstrual cycle, there could be multiple reasons causing the same. A lot of these can be rectified by yourself.”

Here are a few reasons why your menstrual cycle is getting shorter:

1. Stress: Increased stress levels also result in your periods lasting only a couple of days since stress adversely affects your hormones. Once your stress levels go down, your periods’ length most likely to come back to normal.

Stress can affect your menstrual health. Image courtesy: Shutterstock

2. Rigorous workout: If you have been exercising aggressively, it may result in hampering the release of the hormones controlling ovulation, resulting in shorter periods.

3. Certain medications: Certain medicines such as blood control pills, blood thinners, and steroids, to name a few, also contribute to shorter periods.

4. Other diseases: Medical conditions such as PCOS, thyroid, tuberculosis of the uterus, and certain sexually transmitted diseases also result in disturbing your menstrual cycle.

5. Poor ovulation: Shorter periods could also be a sign of poor ovulation. This is known as anovulation, and it might cause lighter or irregular periods.

What if the periods last only for 1 or 2 days?

If your period only lasts one or two days, your body may not be making enough oestrogen, which is required to build the endometrium, which is lost during periods when there isn’t a pregnancy. “If there is a lack of estrogen in your body, the endometrium would not be thick enough and hence the blood flow would be scant. Shorter periods could also mean that your periods have not yet regulated if you have just entered puberty since it takes time for your hormones, especially estrogen, to balance out,” Dr Hiremath explains. If you are over 45 years old, simply having periods that last one or two days may also be a sign of approaching menopause.

Don’t suffer period troubles! Image courtesy: Shutterstock

What is considered a normal menstrual cycle?

Dr Hiremath says, “Every woman’s period cycle is different in terms of duration and consistency. Even though a menstrual cycle ranging between 4 to 8 days is considered to be normal.” Don’t panic, though, if your periods have rarely lasted longer than two days, especially if they are regular and the flow is not too heavy or light. A typical menstrual cycle should be 28 days long, even though a cycle can range between 28 and 40 days.

However, it is advisable to see a gynaecologist if you have suddenly noticed a shortened cycle. A gynaecologist will be able to pinpoint the precise cause of the problem so that the appropriate steps can be taken to reverse it right away.

Follow these 5 tips to maintain a healthy menstrual cycle:

1. Avoid stress: Don’t let stress mess with you. Always practice meditation or yoga to tackle this issue.

2. Sleep well: Deep sleep is crucial! Try to sleep early and get enough sleep. According to a study published in the journal PLOS One, if your sleep cycle is healthy, it can help maintain the menstrual cycle.

Take a better sleep. Image courtesy: Shutterstock

3. Follow a healthy diet: For a regular menstrual cycle, you need to focus on your diet. Try to include all the essential vitamins and minerals in your diet so that they can help together to manage your hormones.

4. Exercise: In order to regularize your cycle, it is crucial that you move your body. A study in the Journal of Education and Health Promotion found that regular exercise can help avoid obesity, maintain hormonal balance, and result in regular periods.

5. Avoid overeating: Most of the time, the cause of irregular menstrual cycles is your diet. So don’t skip your meal, avoid junk food, do not binge eat or overeat, and most importantly, pay attention to your nutritional deficiencies.

Number of times a newborn wakes up per night

06/19/2015

223304

338

Sleep knowledge base

0–3 months

Author of the article

Tatyana Chkhikvishvili

Tatyana Chkhikvishvili

Head of Online Programs, psychologist, sleep and breastfeeding consultant

Mom of two children

Your life has changed – a baby has appeared in it. Along with an overflowing feeling of happiness, a mother often has many questions about caring for a baby. And this is quite natural, because the first month of a child’s life is not only a great joy, but also a new responsibility.

Sleep plays a special role in the correct and harmonious development of a child, so every mother wants to learn as much as possible about this important process in a baby’s life. How much should a newborn baby sleep per day? How many hours should a newborn sleep during the day and how many at night? How many hours does it cost him to stay awake during the day? When should a mother put her baby to bed at night? Should I keep the same sleep pattern day and night? How many times can a newborn baby wake up during the night? These questions often arise in front of parents in the first weeks after the birth of a child.

0–4 months. Improve sleep in 3 weeks

How much should a newborn sleep per day?

It may seem that a newborn baby in the first week sleeps almost all the time, day and night. So it is: the sleep of a baby up to a month is the same day and night. A newborn baby sleeps in short bursts and wakes up every 1 to 3 hours to eat before going back to sleep. This is a very important period in the life of the baby: in a dream, the child adapts to a new, not yet familiar way of life outside, and not inside.

On average, a newborn baby under the age of one month sleeps 16-19 hours a day. But all children are very different, and deviations from the average values ​​up or down are possible.

Poll

What sleeping position was recommended for your baby in the maternity hospital?

(you can choose one or more options)

• Side
• Back
• Stomach
• Half Side
• Didn’t say anything

Pro voted: 48596

How long a child is awake less than a month old

The periods of wakefulness of a child depend on how long he is able to stay in the active phase (not sleep) without fatigue. It is difficult for an excessively tired child to fall asleep, sleep can be restless and intermittent due to overwork, a newborn child may wake up more often. The result of such a dream can be excessive tearfulness of the baby and, as a result, anxiety of the mother and frequent rises at night.

The ease of falling asleep also depends on how long the child is awake. Usually a newborn at the age of 1-2 weeks can be awake during the day without overwork for 40-50 minutes. At 3–5 weeks, this time increases to 50–60 minutes. But it is increasing rather slowly. Even by 4 months, the waking time is only 2 hours. This time includes feeding, preparing for bed, and laying down.

If your baby cries at bedtime, has difficulty falling asleep, sleeps poorly, wakes up crying every hour or more, you may need to put him to bed a little earlier and reduce wakefulness periods.

Babies under 4-5 weeks old should not be awake for more than an hour!

Newborn sleep while breastfeeding

A breastfed baby wakes up every 1. 5 to 3 hours on average. In such a situation, a crib moved close to the parent would be a convenient option. Mom does not have to get up every night and go to the baby in the crib.

Formula-fed newborn sleep

Formula-fed newborns have slightly different sleep and wake times than breastfed babies. One of the reasons is the rate of digestion of breast milk – it is higher than that of formula milk. The mixture allows you to prolong the feeling of satiety of the child, so for 2-3 hours a well-fed baby may never wake up.

The size of the portion also affects the duration of sleep: infants drink a different amount of breast milk at each meal and sometimes they may “not finish eating”, so their sleep time may be shorter than for formula-fed babies who receive milk formula in equal portions.

Remember that a child can wake up not only from hunger. He may be bothered by colic or a wet diaper. Also, the quality and duration of sleep is affected by the microclimate in the room. A humidifier will be a good helper, especially during the heating season. And don’t forget to air out the nursery before getting ready for bed.

Remember to air out your child’s room before going to bed.

Child development stage

Children are born with a range of reflexes. Some of them gradually fade away over several weeks and months, while others remain. The main reflexes of a newborn baby are the reflex of sucking, swallowing and regurgitation. While this is enough for the baby to begin to develop. Newborn babies do not control their movements and cannot hold their heads or roll over on their own. It is because of uncontrolled movements that a newborn can wake up. Therefore, sleep consultants advise swaddling in the first months. Each mother herself decides on the need for swaddling, based on personal preferences and characteristics of the baby.

In the first 2 weeks of life, a newborn is practically insensitive to signals from the outside world, especially when sleeping. It may not respond to loud and harsh sounds, bright lights, and movement. The child goes through a difficult adaptation period in the first month of his life, and sleep is partly a protective function of the body. It helps to get used to the changes that happened to the baby immediately after birth, allowing you to gradually and gently adapt to a new, yet unfamiliar world. This is one of the reasons why a newborn sleeps so many hours every day.

Sleep this month is affected by:

• No body clock set. Newborn babies don’t live in a 24-hour rhythm. Their sleep does not depend on the time of day. The need to feed every couple of hours in the first month of life causes fragmented sleep both at night and during the day.
• Absence of “day” and “night”. The kid does not know that now the night has come and it’s time to sleep, and the day is the time for walking and playing. The rhythm of sleep and wakefulness of the child still needs to be tuned in over the coming months. It is important from the first days of life to show the child the difference between day and night, in order to avoid the very common problem of “mixed up day and night.”
• Neonatal rhinitis. Does the newborn cry during breastfeeding or bottle feeding, does not calm down during feeding, does not fall asleep at the end of it? Sensation as if he were disturbed by a stuffy nose. Why this happens, how to help the baby and when it is important to show the child to the doctor in a short video tells the sleep specialist Irina Zavalko.

The video was made with the support of the favorite children’s brand Chicco

The newborn has no biological clock, the baby does not distinguish between “day” and “night”.

	Daytime sleep
	In the first weeks of life, babies sleep a lot. Daytime naps average 1-2 hours, but their duration may be less. In this case, the wakefulness time is only 40-60 minutes, i.e., after waking up, after about 40 minutes the child is ready to fall asleep again.
	Night sleep
	Newborn babies have a very small stomach and need to be fed every 2-3 hours on average, so waking up frequently at night is natural at first. But some babies can sleep for 5-6 hours without waking up. Such a long period without awakening can be only once a day, so it is important that it falls at night, because if the baby sleeps for a long time during the day, he will not be able to sleep as long at night.

Tip of the month

During the neonatal period (up to 1 month), it is very important to recreate familiar conditions for babies, similar to those that were in the womb. Swaddling, rocking, white noise – all this soothes a newborn baby, gives him a feeling of comfort and helps him fall asleep.

#gv#iv

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“Seagull” over the world: normal flight!

Recent issue

WG-Week

Homeland

Thematic applications

Union

Recent issue

06.03.2022 00:01 9 0003

Society

Text:

Yulia Andreikina (Chief Specialist of the Department of Information Support of the Russian State archive of film and photo documents (RGAKFD)), Elena Koloskova (deputy head of the information support department of the RGAKFD)

Motherland – Federal issue: No. 3 (322)

The space theme of the issue, dedicated to the anniversary of Valentina Tereshkova, is completed by archival photographs from the RGAKFD funds

More than 500 cosmonauts have been in Earth orbit. And the first woman in space was a native of the Yaroslavl region, Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, who went on a three-day flight around the Earth on June 16, 1963 on the Vostok-6 spacecraft. After the completion of the flight, a nationwide, international celebration of the conqueror of space followed.

When choosing a candidate for astronauts, not only physical parameters were important, but also the ability to conduct active social activities. Tereshkova was perfect for this role. On August 1, 1963, Lieutenant General of Aviation Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin, who supervised the training of the first Soviet cosmonauts, presciently wrote in his diary:

“Valya has already stated several times:” I will continue to fly into space, I will go in for parachuting. at first glance, it seems quite natural and the only correct one. But I imagine Tereshkova’s future differently. … Tereshkova can and should not just be the first woman in space. She is smart, she has a will, she makes a very good impression on everyone and can perform excellently on any of the highest podiums. Tereshkova must be made into a great public figure, she will represent the Soviet Union with honor and brilliance at any international forum. .. Tereshkova, as the head of the women’s public organization of the USSR and international women’s organizations, will do for the country, for our party is a thousand times more than it is able to do in space.”

The bulk of the array of photographs (more than 500 in total) and film documents (more than 200 in total) of the RGAKFD related to V.V. Tereshkova, refers specifically to the sphere of her social activities.

RGAKFD film and photo documents tell about V.V. Tereshkova. So, together with cosmonaut V.F. Bykovsky, she visited Bulgaria and Poland, with Yu.A. Gagarin – in the GDR and Mexico. There were also trips to Czechoslovakia, Cuba and many other countries, including together with cosmonaut A.G. Nikolaev, who on November 1963 became her husband. This event – the first wedding of two cosmonauts – was also captured on film: it can be seen both in photographs and, for example, in the film Our Yaroslavna.

The RGAKFD also has a few photographs depicting V. V. Tereshkova with her family: with her mother, sister and brother, with her first husband, pilot-cosmonaut A.G. Nikolaev and daughter Elena.

From foreign trips V.V. Tereshkova returned with more and more medals and orders, some of which can be seen in the portrait 1973 In addition to the “Gold Star” of the Hero of the Soviet Union (the Decree on assignment was issued shortly after landing on June 22, 1963), you can also notice more unusual ones – for example, the “Order of the Nile” hanging on a chain, which Tereshkova was awarded in Egypt, and the Cross of Grunwald, 1st Class, from the Polish People’s Republic.

General Kamanin’s prophecy came true: “I am convinced that our “Seagull” will fly over the world for a long time … attracting millions of people, and especially women, to our side.”

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