Taiwanese Lady Diagnosed With Rare Condition That Makes Her Cough Up ‘Menstrual Blood’

November 9, 2016

A Taiwanese woman has been diagnosed with a rare condition that reportedly causes her to cough up “menstrual blood” during her period.

After suffering from chest pains for almost a year, the patient, a 28-year-old engineer, suddenly began coughing up phlegm with some streaks of blood, according to Apple Daily Taiwan (via AsiaOne).

The woman then sought a doctor’s advice, thinking that she might be suffering from a lung or heart problem. Tests would later reveal, however, that her heart and lungs were both fine. During her monthly menstruation, she felt that her condition worsened, coughing up blood clots over the course of a few days.

Seeking help from the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) in Hsin-chu, she was diagnosed with endometriosis, a rare, painful disorder in which tissue from a woman’s uterine lining (endometrium) grows beyond the organ itself. The lining, which breaks itself into its bloody form, gets shed every month during the menstrual cycle.

According to medical experts, retrograde menstrual flow, which has the blood flowing backward into the pelvis during menstruation, may be the cause of endometriosis. Such condition, according to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, usually affects women who are in their reproductive years. This may also cause infertility, which affects 30% of all sufferers.

Local specialists believe that endometriosis causes bleeding from abnormal tissue deposits in organs such as the lungs.

Dr. Lin, the hospital’s head of gynecology who treated the patient, explained that endometrial tissue may have traveled to her lungs and somehow got trapped. She explained that when the tissue began shedding, she ends up coughing blood.

As a temporary remedy, the patient was reportedly given birth control pills and hormone injections to prevent her from ovulating and menstruating.

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