Page 28 - February 2024

Transformation of Menarche

My beautiful, sweet daughter is without a menstruation directly results from healthy
doubt in the full throes of pre-puberty! In rasa dhātu.
between her ten-and-a-half-year-old giggles

and love for her favorite stuffed unicorn are Like the multiple petals of a beautiful
obvious snaps of anger and volatile moods. flower (pushpa), which a budding maiden

She’s changed from wearing a slip to a half- blossoms into, the samhitas use multiple
slip bra to cover her growing breast buds, Sanskrit words, in addition to ārtava, when
and I’ve recently noticed teeny pimples on talking about menstrual blood or the ovum

the sides of her nose. I recognize these tell- including śonita, asrk, rajah, and rakta. It
tale signs as the stirrings of estrogen and has a predominance of agni mahabhuta.

other female hormones. In a few years she The quantity of ārtava is specified as four
will enter into womanhood. Anjali – about 35 mL (A.H. Sharira Sthana
3/81). This falls within the range of 10 to

According to Samkhya philosophy, Shakti 80 mL for menstrual volume per modern
(Prakruti) carried the universe hidden medicine. The color or menstrual blood is

in avyaktam (unmanifested form) and described in the samhitas as various shades
transformed primordial matter through of red, such as the color of the gunja fruit
her divine powers of creation into the (Abrus precatorius), a red lotus (pinkish-

magnificent cosmos. In Charaka Samhita red), or the indragopaka insect (a darker
Sharira Sthana, there is a similar verse shade of red). Acharya Sushruta said,

describing the unmanifested state of healthy menstrual blood does not stain a
womanhood which lies within a female white cloth and can easily be washed out
child from the time of conception, and (Su.Sa. Sharira Sthana 2/17). It also has a

burgeons at precisely the right moment typical odor (A.H. Sharira Sthana) that
in time. It makes perfect sense that the may even smell like honey in some females

Sanskrit word, ārtava, referring to female (Ma.Ni. 61/7). Finally, healthy menses is
reproductive tissues, also denotes that consistent, lacks sliminess, is moderate in
which belongs to a particular time period quantity lasting 3 to 5 days, and does not

(ritu). This timing is determined by the cause burning or pain when it flows.
hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis

which regulates hormones that signal the The typical menstrual cycle is 21 to 35
start of puberty. As ārtava is the upadhatu days long with an average of 28 days and
(subsidiary tissue) of rasa dhatu, normal is divided into three phases according

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