Brown Discharge: What Does It Mean?

You may ask yourself, why is my period blood brown? Rest assured that this is considered completely normal for women who are on birth control pills. Instead of red bleeding, you can have brown discharge for a week during the time you are expected to have a period. Spotting instead of period is also a common phenomenon for women taking birth control pills. The spotting can be pink or red, or you can have brown spotting before period. When you take birth control pills for a long period of time, there may be no bloody discharge after period but instead you will have white discharge instead of period. This type of discharge or watery discharge after period is also commonly found in women who have been taking Depo Provera, which is a progesterone shot that prevents buildup of the uterine lining.

Ovulation Bleeding

You can have bleeding a week after period if you are ovulating. When the egg is discharged from the follicle cyst, a small amount of bleeding can go along with it so you will have bleeding associated with the time of ovulation. It doesn’t affect your fertility and is not dangerous. Instead of bright red spotting during ovulation, you can get brown discharge after period which is associated with blood from the follicle cyst. Not every woman gets this sign of ovulation but, when it happens, it means you can get pregnant on that day.

What does Dark Brown Vaginal Discharge Mean?

As mentioned, brown discharge between periods can mean you have an infection. Any kind of vaginal infection can lead to brownish discharge. Often, you will have other symptoms besides discharge. The discharge will be malodorous and you may have burning or itching of the vaginal area or vulva. The infection can be from a sexually transmitted disease (STD) or from an infection unassociated with sexual activity. Antibiotics are the only thing that can treat these kinds of infections. You need to see your doctor about getting a vaginal culture. The choice of antibiotics depends on the type of infection you have.

Light Brown Discharge After Period

Most periods start with a pink to brownish discharge in the beginning of the period. As the period progresses, the bleeding becomes more bright red and heavier. At the end of the period, the old blood can come out brown. Occasionally, you will get just brown discharge but no period or a brown period. This is not dangerous but just means there is a thin uterine lining and the blood that comes out is old and brown in color. This can last for several days after the period is technically over with and means you will have to continue to wear a pad or tampons until the spotting is over with.

The Significance of Spotting but No Period

If you are expecting your period but instead only get spotting, it could mean that you are pregnant and that the bleeding represents implantation bleeding. When the embryo implants into the uterine lining, you can get a small amount of bleeding from the implantation of the embryo. It usually happens a few days before you expect to get your period and can be confused with having a period.

If you think you may be pregnant, you need to wait a few days and then take a home pregnancy test. If the embryo has satisfactorily implanted into the uterus, the embryo makes human chorionic gonadotropin or HCG, which is the substance that makes a pregnancy test positive. Bleeding from implantation bleeding usually lasts only a day or so and can be brown, red, or pink in color. It is only after this bleeding has occurred that you will get a positive pregnancy test. The amount of HCG doubles every 48 hours or so, which means if the pregnancy test is initially negative, you can wait a day or two in order to repeat the test to see if you are pregnant.

Read also: Pregnancy Discharge: Reasons and Types

When Brownish Discharge Is Alarming

• Brownish discharge can be dangerous if it happens while you are pregnant. It can mean that you have a placenta previa, which is when the placenta is overlying the cervical opening. Any time you have sex, there may be brown discharge or even bright red bleeding. It can be detected on ultrasound and, if the placenta does not migrate upwards in the uterus, you will need to have a cesarean section as a vaginal birth would be extremely dangerous.
• Brown discharge between periods can mean that you have uterine polyps on the inside of the uterus. These are benign polyps that can grow in the uterus, in the muscle of the uterus, or on the outside of the uterus. When they are on the inside of the uterus, they can mean you have heavier periods or that you have bleeding or spotting between periods. Polyps that are inside the uterine lining can be removed during a hysteroscopy or a dilatation and curettage (D and C). As mentioned, they are completely benign and do not mean you have cancer.

• Brown discharge after menopause can also be dangerous. Any type of bleeding or spotting after menopause can be a sign of uterine cancer. It means you should see your doctor in order to find out the cause of the vaginal bleeding. A hysteroscopy or dilatation and curettage may be performed and a biopsy can be taken to identify any cancerous cells that may be present. If they are found, it means you will have to have a hysterectomy to remove the cancer and possibly may need to have chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
• If there is brown discharge during pregnancy, it can also mean you have a condition known as abruptio placentae or an abrupted placenta. It means that the lateral margins of the placenta have torn away from the uterine wall and have begun to bleed. A small amount of bleeding is not dangerous but should still be monitored by your obstetrician. If the flow increases, it could mean that the abruption is getting bigger and the blood flow to the fetus may be compromised. In such cases, it could be an obstetrical emergency necessitating bed rest and a possible cesarean section, even if it means the baby is going to come early. A complete abruption means the placenta has separated completely from the uterus and the baby may die if not delivered immediately.
• If the brown discharge does not go away after pregnancy, it may mean that you have retained placental fragments from your pregnancy that are continually bleeding with old blood coming out of the cervix. The bleeding after pregnancy usually lasts for up to six weeks but if it lasts longer than this, you may need to have a dilatation and curettage to scrape out the placental fragments so that the spotting will stop. See your obstetrician if the bleeding and spotting do not go away.

The Meaning of Various Kinds of Discharge

There can be many types of vaginal discharge possible and most of them are just signs of different hormonal amounts in your body.

After your period, you can get brown vaginal discharge as the period begins to end and old blood is coming out of the uterus. This usually gives way to clear vaginal discharge from estrogen stimulation of the uterus. When the discharge is clear or white, it usually means that the estrogen is dominant and the uterine lining is building up. The discharge becomes extremely thick and stringy around the time of ovulation. It is especially made that way for the sperm to swim up into the uterus from the cervix during sex.

After ovulation, the vaginal discharge becomes sticky and white. It is from the influence of progesterone made by the corpus luteum and means you cannot get pregnant during that time. If you got pregnant at the time of ovulation, the discharge will increase and you may get a small amount of implantation spotting at around 6-9 days after ovulation. It may feel as though it is a period but is usually a very little amount of bleeding and isn’t at the usual time of when you are supposed to get your period.

If you didn’t get pregnant, the period starts. It starts with brown or pink discharge that gradually increases to become a bloody flow. If it is your period, you may get brown discharge throughout the period or heavy bleeding and clots. If you didn’t ovulate at all, it usually results in heavy bleeding, cramping and clots and in a period that happens a few days earlier than the expected 28 days of a normal cycle. Anovulatory bleeding is not dangerous but, if you are trying to get pregnant, you will need to see the doctor about taking a medication that will cause you to ovulate.

At the end of the period, there is usually a few days of spotting and sometimes brown vaginal discharge. It is only from the last vestiges of uterine lining that are leaking out of the cervix. It is not dangerous and is replaced once again by discharge stimulated by estrogen.

Treating Infections Causing Brown Vaginal Discharge

As mentioned, infections can result in brown vaginal discharge. Various kinds of infections can cause this:

• Yeast infections usually result in white and curdled vaginal discharge and is often associated with vaginal itching.
• Trichomonas can cause green or brown vaginal discharge associated with vaginal burning and sometimes vaginal itching. The discharge will smell bad and the infection can be contagious to another sexual partner.
• Bacterial vaginosis is not necessarily sexually transmitted but it can be given to another sexual partner. Chlamydia can lead to discharge or it can have no symptoms whatsoever. It is a sexually transmitted disease. Gonorrhea can lead to green vaginal discharge and is also sexually transmitted.

Antibiotics are used to treat the various vaginal infections except for yeast infections. In cases of yeast infections, antifungal agents are used instead. This can mean taking an oral antifungal medication or using a topical antifungal agent such as Monistat, which can be purchased at the local drug store. It sometimes takes several days of topical application of an antifungal cream in order to get rid of a fungal infection. Women who are diabetics are more prone to these infections and can have a harder time getting rid of the infection.

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