Vaginal bleeding after a long run??

Question

I'm a 27 year old female of normal weight. I ran a half marathon yesterday and am now having some light bleeding and stomach cramps. I'm not expecting my period for 2 weeks and it is not possible that I could be pregnant. Is this normal?? This is not my first marathon....I run 25-30 miles a week and have ran many half marathons. I've never had this problem in the past. Could this be caused from all of the running? I've heard that blood in your urine after a long run can be normal, but never this....

Answer 1

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IF you are asking about blood in the urine, I can (as a male) in part address that.  The other aspects, well, I think you'll have to go to the other gender in the species.

Serious blood in the urine after long runs hit me about 5 years ago.  It's not something that happens (to me!) often, but I found out through professional specialists it can occur when:

-you do any strenous physical activity (like running) for a long time

-underhydrate (or even hydrate, or overhydrate!)

-you high-stress your body

As you probably know, you can go for a long run and not high stress your body.  However, a marathon / half-marathon race is long enough and high stress enough to elicit blood in the urine.

One possible cause of this is that near-microscopic calcium "stones" develop in the bladder.  The granular stones rub against the bladder lining, and cause micro-scrapes - cutting capillaries in the lining of the bladder - and voila!  blood in the urine.

My experience in this is that the bleeding occurs day of the high stress activity, so of course I am a bit surprised this is happening to you day after.

Of course, this is not medical advice; but simply one cause of post-run bleeding.  It would be really a good idea to talk to your doctor about this.

Other sources of bleeding, again, I think you need to talk to the ladies "out there."

Regards,

Running_Dad

Answer 2

Its probably because you are stressed. Take a day or two off.

Answer 3

This same thing happened to me when I first began running- I was pretty inactive before running, and I think just starting to run like 20-30 miles a week caused it. It's been happening for about 3 months now and it gets lighter every time- and it's at the same time too.... like day 12-13 (sorry for the info). I thought I was pregnant because spotting and cramping in the uterus are two signs of pregnancy, and I'm married so it's a real possibility. Anyways, I found out that I'm not and my doctor said it is probably just the activity causing any dried blood that didn't get out w/ your period to basically empty itself out. So if you've been putting a few extra miles on or if your uterus simply didn't "empty out", that's most likely what it is. I don't think it's anything serious- it should last a couple days at the most. You may want to get it checked out if you're worried. God Bless.