I know this is going to seem rather disgusting, but it is a very serious question.
I’ll get right to it: If a woman is menstruating during her death, will she still bleed vaginally post-mortem?
If so, what would a funeral home do about that? Would they insert a tampon or use some kind of absorbant pad to…well you get the idea.
Here’s all I can come up with in way of things I already know, or think I know.
Since the blood from the uterus is pre-existing, as far as I know it isn’t pumped into the uterus during menstruation, it could continue to exit the body without needing the aid of a beating heart to expel it.
I hope someone around here can correct me. Sorry if this seems out of line or just downright sick, but I’m honestly curious about this.
Awaiting answers from the Teeming Millions (hopefully a doctor out there will put my mind at ease)
not sure if i have the correct answer but i watch six feet under quite a bit and remember them mentioning having to place a cotton ball or balls in a departed person’s backside so i figure maybe they just use cotton balls weird thing on that show the one undertaker seems to use canned cat food quite a bit
I know that corpses are routinely drained of blood as part of the embalming process, and I’m pretty sure that it takes a few hours to do so. I’d guess that, after this “draining,” if the mortician were to see any blood anywhere else on the corpse, he’d clean it up as part of a whole list of cosmetic “touch-ups” that are too gruesome to bring up.
In any case, very rarely (if ever) are dead people taken so quickly to an open-casket funeral after death that the circumstances of their death would still be evident. Most of the time a mortician will take the time to make the corpse presentable (render it a mere “body” instead of a corpse) which takes some amount of time. Blood flow, either from gunshot wounds or menstruation, would clearly stop by the time the casket viewing came around. Muslims bury their dead as quickly as possible, but wrap the corpse in thick shrouds and have no equivalent of the Western (Christian?) “viewing”. Fine with me–I think the idea of a viewing is a bit gross myself.
As to whether menstrual flow itself continues after death: beats me. It’s not purely mechanical: that is, the menstrual period results from certain hormone levels in a woman’s blood. When the blood stops circulating at death, I’d imagine that biological processes based on hormone levels also quit fairly soon.
Jewish tradition includes no viewing. The dead are put in a box, and the ground as quickly as possible. The body is cleaned and dressed, however. Leakage of any kind would have to be rather severe to be a problem.
Secondly, I question the cotton story. Unca Cecil addressed the preparation of corpses for funerals wayback when. I'd post a link, but the computer I'm on at the moment is giving me ebough problems just typing.