your true colours.

[cestsibon.livejournal.com]

What causes menstral blood to change its colour?

Case in point: On each of my 5.5 day period [this time around at least, I cant remember the other times] what I see on my pad is the a different colour each day! It's starting to feel a little weird.

Comments

[wannamotelnow.livejournal.com]

what color is it? i know it's common for it to be a little brown or really bright red at different days.

[wannamotelnow.livejournal.com]

black?
i've never heard of period blood being black. did you look at in in the light or on your finger? if it was just in the pad or tampon and there was a lot of it, maybe it was just incredibly dark red.

do you have heavy periods?

[cestsibon.livejournal.com]

It was either black or an extremely dark brown. I didnt check with my finger but when I whipped it definetly wasn't that dark.

[wannamotelnow.livejournal.com]

hmm. you arent having really bad cramps or anything?

[cestsibon.livejournal.com]

Just today.

and there is no chance in the world I could be pregnant and Im not on any meds.

[wannamotelnow.livejournal.com]

i think it is perfectly normal.

[cestsibon.livejournal.com]

Thursday-regular old red.
Friday-dark red.
Saturday-brownish red.
Sunday-really dark red.
Monday-black.
Tuesday-brown spotting.

[roaring-woman.livejournal.com]

that's about how I am. especially if I have clotting. The clots always look black, but they aren't. Old blood (what usually comes out towards the end of the period) is brown and if there is alot, it's very dark brown and can look nearly black.

It seems for me, if I have a three days period I start it with a vengance and I bleed heavily very dark red and then it suddenly just ends.

If it is a longer period, then it is very similar to what you describe your cycle as.

[ilikemytie.livejournal.com]

Basically the redder it is, the fresher it is. I'm not really sure how to explain it, but older blood, and when blood dries, it's a more brown color. Usually towards day two or three, my tampon/sponge will look positively dark (almost black) because of all the saturation, clots, etc. But that's because of the mass of blood that is there.

If you have a cup of blood, it will look darker than if you have the blood spread evenly over a large surface. Has to do with light penetrating it too when you're looking at it.

I'm rambling. Ignore me! *laugh*

[granolagrrrl.livejournal.com]

I thought it had something to do with oxidation, like when an uneaten apple half turns brown. I thought maybe it was a similiar chemical process. But now I'm really curious to find out. There was one time that my period started out all brown and old, and then the next day it was all bright red and fresh. I was like, "huh"?

[washburnbear.livejournal.com]

Since the blood layer in the uterus develops closest to the wall and pushes outward as the layer thickens from the bottom, it makes sense that what's on the outermost layer is old blood - maybe a little left from last time or something. So that would be the first out, with the next being the new red blood.