FIT WebQoof: Should You Avoid Drinking Iced Water On Your Period?

Here are some common period myths that need to be debunked, now!

Menstruation is not impure, unhygienic or dirty.

(Illustration: Arnica Kala)

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The Claim

A social media post shows graphic images of a woman's overly enlarged belly and claims that it is actually a tumor in her uterus. The tumor has been attributed to some activities that the woman should have avoided while she was menstruating.

The post carries a caption that lists all the do's and dont's. Here are the claims:

1. Do not drink iced water, soda water, or eat coconut during menstruation.
2. Do not apply shampoo on your head because the pores of the head are open during menstruation and it can cause headache (hit the wind head). It is very dangerous for menstruating women of all ages.
3. Do not eat cucumber during menstruation because the sap present in it can block some menstrual blood (blood waste) in the uterine wall, and this can cause barrenness.
4. In addition, your body should not be knocked off or hit by hard objects, especially the abdomen, because it can cause you to vomit blood and injure the uterus.

The Truth

Before delving into the caption, we find out the origins of the pictures being circulated. After a reverse image search on Google, we discovered that these were actually from a 2017 case of a woman’s five-stone cyst that had been successfully removed.

The post then talks about some common and absurd period-myths that need to be cleared. For this purpose, FIT reached out to Dr Shilpa Agrawal, Consultant Gynaecologist at Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, who clarified that there was no truth in any of these claims. For all the four claims, she said, “This is all false.”

• There’s nothing that you can’t eat when you’re menstruating. Your diet has nothing to do with such extreme health problems during menstruation.
• Chilled water, coconut or cucumber — there is no associated harm between these food items and cancer or tumor.
• You can shampoo your hair just like you do every time. There is no truth in any of these claims.

“Menstruation is a hormonal process. It’s physiological and not pathological. There is no diet that will affect it, especially to this extent. Yes, localized heat can help reduce cramps, which is why hot water is recommended. But all the claims mentioned here are baseless. You can eat what you regularly eat.”

Dr Shilpa Agrawal

So we know for sure, that the post is completely false. The images are sourced from an earlier case, and the things-to-avoid listed in the caption are all fallacious.