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Heatwave and Hormones: A recent research has revealed that due to extreme heat and heatwaves, the balance of hormones in humans, especially women, is getting disturbed. Due to this, the menstrual cycles of women have started becoming irregular. The research says that sometimes even a seven-year-old girl has started menstruating before the scheduled time, while in some cases, delay in periods of women has been observed. The research says that these problems are being seen due to the adverse effects of climate change and seasonal conditions.
A report in Dawn says that Pakistan’s National Institute of Health (NIH) has recently found in a study that women living in geographical areas sensitive to seasonal conditions and climate change are getting their periods either much earlier or later than the scheduled time. The report says that in Pakistan itself, some girls who were only seven years old had to face the problem and pain of untimely menstruation. These girls neither understood the meaning of periods nor were aware of its pain but they had to go through this terrible torture.
The report says that one such girl who started having periods at the age of seven, suddenly stopped having periods after one year. Then she did not have periods for 12 years. Let us tell you that in teenage girls, menstruation usually starts at the age of 10 to 16 years. On an average, the menstrual cycle starts in girls at the age of 12.4 years but due to heat and heat wave, their hormone levels are changing, due to which periods are becoming irregular.
The report says that Pakistan is one such difficult geographical area from the point of view of climate crisis. The average annual temperature there has increased by 0.5 degrees Celsius in the last 50 years. Apart from this, the number of heatwaves there has increased almost five times. In the year 2022, the maximum temperature broke the record of the last 60 years.
In the report, the obstetrician has been quoted as saying that as the temperature rises, the level of cortisol in the body of women increases, which causes the problem of dysmenorrhoea. According to the doctor, most women have menstruation without pain and cramps, but due to increased levels of cortisol, many women have to face problems like pain, unbearable pain and cramps.
Actually, cortisol is a hormone whose secretion increases in stressful or critical situations. Therefore, its level increases more than normal during heatwave or other stressful situations. It also affects the metabolism, blood pressure and blood sugar level of a woman’s body and prepares the body for pregnancy. Its excessive secretion disrupts menstruation and sometimes leads to premature periods.
This news is also important for Indian readers because India also has a hot climate and people here have also been forced to face heatwaves, extreme heat and hot winds. In the national capital Delhi alone, the heat in May and June this year has broken a 74-year record. This was the eighth time since 1951 that the average temperature of Delhi in June was recorded above 41 degrees Celsius.
