A woman cried blood while on her period, a rare condition that could be caused by sex hormones, doctors say

• A woman in India bled from her eyes while on her period.
• Doctors performed multiple tests on her and found she was healthy.
• They think sex hormones caused the bleeding, so they gave her birth control pills, which stopped it.

A 25-year-old woman had the strangest period of her life when she cried bloody tears while menstruating.

According to a March 9 case study in the journal BMJ Case Reports, the woman had experienced the rare condition, called ocular vicarious menstruation, a month before seeing doctors in India where she lives. She also bled from her nose.

When she came to the doctors, who penned the case report, she was on her period again and experiencing the bloody tears in both of her eyes for a second time. The woman said the tears didn't hurt at all, and she didn't take pain medication for it.

Though a few cases of ocular vicarious menstruation have been reported before, doctors are still unsure what causes the strange period side effect. According to one editorial in the Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, bloody period tears could be the result of sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone. These hormones tend to increase when a person is on their period and might increase blood flow to the eyes, the authors of the report wrote.

To determine if the patient actually had ocular vicarious menstruation, the doctors first tested the blood in her tears and a sample of her blood from another area of her body. They found both samples were the B+ blood type, meaning that the woman's bloody tears were the result of her body's functioning.

Next, doctors ruled out underlying illnesses including eye cancer, pink eye, and blood disorders, and potential medication side effects that could have caused the strange bleeding.

Ultimately, they concluded her condition wasn't the result of any underlying medical issues. According to a 2018 case study of the condition, an estimated 30% of ocular bleeding cases aren't tied to other medical issues and are simply mysteries.

To treat the woman, doctors gave her birth control pills with the hormones estrogen and progesterone. According to her doctors, oral contraceptives can halt the bleeding because they stop natural ovulation that releases the hormones potentially messing with her eye tissue.

Indeed, three months after seeing the doctors, the woman reported she no longer had bloody tears.