# Menstruation Q: does water retention serve a purpose?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/menstruation-q-does-water-retention-serve-a-purpose/204242>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 28, 2003, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/menstruation-q-does-water-retention-serve-a-purpose/204242 "2003-09-28T02:08:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/menstruation-q-does-water-retention-serve-a-purpose/204242/1 "2003-09-28T02:08:14Z")

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Odd question from a guy, I know.

Well? Does it? Or is it just a “side effect”?

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**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/menstruation-q-does-water-retention-serve-a-purpose/204242/2 "2003-09-28T11:02:59Z")

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Well, that whole cycle in prepping the body for pregnancy, which requires and increase in fluids in the body. So from that viewpoint, it’s not useful for _menstruation_ so much as useful if the woman actually conceives.

However, normal menstruation does involve some loss of bodily fluids - not just blood (of which there is usually not much - it just _looks_ really dramatic) but also mucus and vaginal secretions that help flush the system, so to speak. I’m guessing that storing up fluid beforehand makes dehydration during the process itself less likely.

But some women just plain retain more water than they really need for all this, due to the usual range of human variability.

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**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/menstruation-q-does-water-retention-serve-a-purpose/204242/3 "2003-09-28T11:09:14Z")

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[smartass]

Yeah, since we’re not really very fertile at this time, a guy would be better off to find a woman who IS fertile…water retention makes us irritable.

[/smartass]

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**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/menstruation-q-does-water-retention-serve-a-purpose/204242/4 "2003-09-28T16:46:05Z")

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I think it’s more of an imbalance, if you retain too much water. Because both the times I was eating a mega healthy whole foods diet and when I was taking natural supplements to combat menstural symptoms (evening primrose and chaste tree) I had hardly any retention, if any. And no other symptoms, even cramps were virtually non existent.