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More articles by Dr. Soucasaux: Anatomical drawings - Anovulatory cycles - Archetypal aspects of the female genitals - The breasts: some morphological aspects - Colposcopy - Comments on the corpus luteum and related aspects - Comments on some anatomical and symbolic aspects of the female pelvis - The curious relations between androgens and estrogens in women - Drospirenone Oral Contraceptives - Due to prohibition, Brazilian women don't have access to modern medicinal abortion - Endocrinology of menstruation - The Fallopian tubes - Female sexual response - The Gräfenberg Spot (G-Spot) - The Gynecologic Palpation (descendant of "The Touch") - Gynecological assistance: the three basic areas - Gynecology and Gynecologic Surgery - Gynecologist versus obstetrician: what lies behind the combination? - "Gyneco-obstetric-surgical" stubborness and the perpetuation of one of the greatest mistakes of women's medicine - Hypermenorrhea and/or Menorrhagia (Prolonged and/or Excessive Menstrual Bleedings) - Hypertrichosis, Hirsutism and Androgenic Manifestations in Women - Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKHauser) Syndrome - Menstrual toxin: An old name for a real thing? - Nature and the ovaries - On the Intimate, or Small-Scale, Mechanisms of Menstruation - On the Strange Nature of the Ovaries - Oral hormonal contraceptives (the "Pill") - The Ovaries: Some Functional and Archetypal Considerations - Peculiarities of the Female Genitals' Sensory Innervation - Physiology of menstruation - Polycystic ovaries syndrome - The Possibility of Becoming Pregnant, Its Implications for Women, and Abortion - Premenstrual congestion of the breasts - Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) - The Psychology of Gynecology part 1 (part 2) - Psychosomatic and symbolic aspects of menstruation - Psychosomatic gynecology - Some Details on the Function of the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Ovaries Axis - Stanislav Grof's Perinatal Matrixes of the Unconscious and Women's Medicine - Symmetric Patterns in the Female Genitals - Thoughts on Female Sexual Psychology - Uninterrupted use of hormonal contraceptives for menstrual suppression: why I do not recommend it - The uterine cervix - Uterine contractility - The Uterus and the Female "Passive-Active" - Women's corporeal consciousness and experience - Women's Experience of the Breasts - Women's Undesired Pregnancies and Women's Right to Abortion and see his Art of Menstruation


Read also Menotoxin: a short, incomplete introduction to the "poison" in menstrual discharge.

Menstrual toxin: An old name for a real thing?

by Dr. Nelson Soucasaux

The formation in the menstrual or even premenstrual endometrium of a group of substances named "menstrual toxins" or "menotoxins" was postulated many years ago. They would possess toxic properties and would be fundamentally responsible for the causation of dysmenorrhea. While not entirely eliminated with menstruation, their systemic absorption would be able to cause some of the general symptoms that often accompany the menstrual flow. Though this is still hypothetical, I believe we must also consider the possibility that a premenstrual absorption of such postulated substances may also generate some of the symptoms of the premenstrual syndrome. With regard to this hypothesis, a very curious fact is the usually quick disappearance of the edemas and many other premenstrual symptoms with the beginning of menstruation - that is, with the necrotic endometrium desquamation and elimination. On this subject, see my article "Tensão Pré-Menstrual: Discussão e novos enfoques sobre a sua etiologia" ("Premenstrual Syndrome: Discussion and a new approach on its etiology"), published in "Ginecologia Brasileira," vol. 8, nº 5, September/October 1976.

In 1965, in his book "Enfermedades del Aparato Genital Femenino" (Editorial Científico-Médica, Barcelona, Spain), Botella Llusiá had already observed that not only dysmenorrhea, but also other premenstrual and menstrual symptoms, were attributed by Smith and Smith to an "intoxication" by the "menotoxins" produced in the endometrium. Though presently nobody speaks about "menstrual toxins" any more, this old hypothesis still seems to be, at least in part, true. It is widely known that, at the somatic level, the uterine menstrual contractions are really caused by substances produced in the endometrium during its regression and necrosis, substances that integrate the group of the prostaglandins. (Because of this, one of the best treatments for menstrual cramps is the administration, during the menstrual period, of the modern anti-inflammatory drugs that inhibit the synthesis of prostaglandins.)

Therefore, there is some relationship between these prostaglandins and the old "menotoxins." Besides, indications suggesting the production of other still non-precisely identified substances in the regressive and necrotic endometrium continue existing. Among them, we can mention substances that cause proteolysis, vasoconstriction and vasodilation and that participate of the so-called local mechanisms of menstruation. Since they produce lytic, ischemic and hemorrhagic phenomena in the endometrium in order to cause the menstrual disintegration and elimination of this tissue, we cannot avoid attributing them some "toxic" effect - even being entirely physiological. In this way, the negative meaning inherent to the terms "toxic" or "toxin" must be regarded here from a different point of view, since these postulated "menstrual toxins" (if they really exist) are physiological - at least when produced in normal levels.

Now, an important remark must be made. If we want a new approach to the old "menstrual toxins" subject, this concept needs urgently to get rid of its negative archetypal content. We must consider that the complex signs and symptoms that characterize the premenstrual syndrome and the dysmenorrhea result from physiological alterations that, in turn, can often stimulate the emergence of negative archetypal contents existing in many women's minds in relation to this cyclical uterine bleeding that is menstruation. Therefore, this concept of "menstrual toxins" cannot be used, by any means, for reinforcing the debatable new idea of artificially suppressing menstruation. We must remember that many toxic substances are continuously produced in the human body, from which they are also continuously eliminated in order to keep their levels within normal or acceptable values.

© Nelson Soucasaux, 2001

Nelson Soucasaux is a gynecologist dedicated to clinical, preventive and psychosomatic gynecology. Graduated in 1974 by Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he is the author of several articles published in medical journals and of the books "Novas Perspectivas em Ginecologia" ("New Perspectives in Gynecology") and "Os Órgãos Sexuais Femininos: Forma, Função, Símbolo e Arquétipo" ("The Female Sexual Organs: Shape, Function, Symbol and Archetype"), published by Imago Editora, Rio de Janeiro, 1990, 1993.
Read Dr. Soucasaux's objections to voluntarily stopping menstruation except for extreme medical conditions and his Psychosomatic and Symbolic Aspects of Menstruation
Web site (Portuguese-English): www.nelsonginecologia.med.br
E-mail: nelsons@nelsonginecologia.med.br


Read also Menotoxin: a short, incomplete introduction to the "poison" in menstrual discharge

NEWS | homepage | LIST OF ALL TOPICS | MUM address & What does MUM mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor (olor)| pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | religion | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | underpants directory | videos, films directory | Words and expressions about menstruation | Would you stop menstruating if you could? | What did women do about menstruation in the past? | washable pads
More articles by Dr. Soucasaux: Anatomical drawings - Anovulatory cycles - Archetypal aspects of the female genitals - The breasts: some morphological aspects - Colposcopy - Comments on the corpus luteum and related aspects - Comments on some anatomical and symbolic aspects of the female pelvis - The curious relations between androgens and estrogens in women - Drospirenone Oral Contraceptives - Due to prohibition, Brazilian women don't have access to modern medicinal abortion - Endocrinology of menstruation - The Fallopian tubes - Female sexual response - The Gräfenberg Spot (G-Spot) - The Gynecologic Palpation (descendant of "The Touch") - Gynecological assistance: the three basic areas - Gynecology and Gynecologic Surgery - Gynecologist versus obstetrician: what lies behind the combination? - "Gyneco-obstetric-surgical" stubborness and the perpetuation of one of the greatest mistakes of women's medicine - Hypermenorrhea and/or Menorrhagia (Prolonged and/or Excessive Menstrual Bleedings) - Hypertrichosis, Hirsutism and Androgenic Manifestations in Women - Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKHauser) Syndrome - Menstrual toxin: An old name for a real thing? - Nature and the ovaries - On the Intimate, or Small-Scale, Mechanisms of Menstruation - On the Strange Nature of the Ovaries - Oral hormonal contraceptives (the "Pill") - The Ovaries: Some Functional and Archetypal Considerations - Peculiarities of the Female Genitals' Sensory Innervation - Physiology of menstruation - Polycystic ovaries syndrome - The Possibility of Becoming Pregnant, Its Implications for Women, and Abortion - Premenstrual congestion of the breasts - Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) - The Psychology of Gynecology part 1 (part 2) - Psychosomatic and symbolic aspects of menstruation - Psychosomatic gynecology - Some Details on the Function of the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Ovaries Axis - Stanislav Grof's Perinatal Matrixes of the Unconscious and Women's Medicine - Symmetric Patterns in the Female Genitals - Thoughts on Female Sexual Psychology - Uninterrupted use of hormonal contraceptives for menstrual suppression: why I do not recommend it - The uterine cervix - Uterine contractility - The Uterus and the Female "Passive-Active" - Women's corporeal consciousness and experience - Women's Experience of the Breasts - Women's Undesired Pregnancies and Women's Right to Abortion and see his Art of Menstruation
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