Period Blood Smells Like Metal
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Period Blood Smells Like Metal
Posted on November 8, 2019 September 3, 2020 Last reviewed September 3, 2020
Latest posts by Jessica Lloyd - Naturopathic Practitioner, BHSc(N) ( see all )
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You’ve smelt it – that weird smell on your hands after touching coins or the smell of period blood on your hands. It’s so specific and, well, metallic.
There’s a misconception that when we smell blood we are smelling iron – metal. This isn’t quite true. It’s weirder than that. Your period is blood, and so when we talk about why your period smells metallic, we’re really talking about why blood smells metallic.
There are two ways that (period) blood can smell metallic. The first way is when the iron in blood comes into contact with our skin (the vulva or our hands). The second way is when the iron in blood interacts with the same molecules, but inside blood, making blood on a tampon – that hasn’t touched our oily skin – still possibly smell metallic.
Period blood on a pad, on our vulva or on our hands will have a stronger metallic smell than blood on a tampon, particularly if we are oily or sweaty.
The metallic smell of blood is a form of body odour. It’s not the iron that smells; it’s the iron interacting with the oils on your skin (or with the same components from the skin that are also in blood). The ‘smell of blood’ is the smell we make when iron comes into contact with oils on our skin.
The oils on our skin break down when they come into contact with metals. In fact, a whole new molecule is created during this interaction, and that’s the one that we perceive as smelling metallic.
The smell of metal on the skin is not the smell of metal , but the smell of metal interacting with our skin (or the blood with itself).
When lipid peroxides (skin oils) in sweaty skin decompose (corrode) iron (in blood or metal), they produce an odorous carbonyl hydrocarbon mixture containing volatile compounds (hexanal, heptanal, octanal, nonanal, decanal and 1-octen-3-one).
During the decomposition interaction, the iron molecule gains two electrons, resulting in Fe 2+ ions. The iron becomes twice as negative, reacting with the oils in our skin, with the decomposition quickly resulting in Fe 3+ ions and the carbonyl hydrocarbons.
These smelly compounds are what result in the perception of a metallic smell. This smell is a sensory illusion – there are many items in our world that have these compounds. Some we deem to smell ‘like blood’ or ‘like metal’, but according to scientific research, this association is likely to be as much to do with visual clues as anything.
A good example of this is that the smell of blood doesn’t make people faint; the sight of blood does. These visual cues, such as the colour red or seeing blood or touching a metal tool, create an association with the smell of either metal or blood, depending on the situation.
When study participants were asked to identify this smell (created artificially and they didn’t know what it was supposed to be) they identified it as a huge variety of things including cleaning mixture, hospitals, metallic, mushrooms, forest, and stagnant water. There were almost no themes, and certainly, it wasn’t universally identified as blood.
The same odourant production process occurs with copper and brass. A sweaty hand on a copper doorknob makes the doorknob and your hand both smell. The carbonyl hydrocarbon s are transported around by your greasy mitts.
The odour of jewellery, particularly older jewellery, is another good example because the jewellery touches our skin and its scent can change. The oilier your skin, the stronger the odour.
Our blood can also contain these fats (lipid peroxides), meaning that iron in the blood can react with the fats in the blood, causing blood to smell metallic without it coming into contact with our skin.
An experiment was conducted to look at the perceptions and emotional responses of men and women exposed to the artificially-simulated smell of fresh blood in contact with the skin.
The authors of the study figured that the smell of blood – and its associations with injury, danger, death and food – would be a cue to activate fundamental motivational systems relating to either predatory behaviour or a prey-like withdrawal behaviour, or both.
That is, the researchers wanted to find out what we’d do when we smelled blood – run away in fear or get our napkins ready.
The results showed that we’re all strongly affected by the smell of blood in both positive and negative ways and that women are more sensitive. Women have been found to be more sensitive to smells than men across many studies, but whether this is biological or learnt isn’t clear.
Women and men’s emotional responses to the smell of blood could be divided into strong positive and negative ratings, with negative ratings in women having a strong arousal component. (Arousal doesn’t always mean sexual – when we are excited, scared or anxious, we are also aroused.)
The split in women’s positive or negative responses was related directly to the phase of the menstrual cycle they were in at the time and if they were on the oral contraceptive pill (the pill).
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2006 Oct 27;45(42):7006-9. The two odors of iron when touched or pickled: (skin) carbonyl compounds and organophosphines. Glindemann D1, Dietrich A, Staerk HJ, Kuschk P.
Moran JK, Dietrich DR, Elbert T, Pause BM, Kübler L, Weierstall R. The Scent of Blood: A Driver of Human Behavior?. PLoS One . 2015;10(9):e0137777 . Published 2015 Sep 23. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0137777
Bertomeu-Sánchez Chemistry, microscopy and smell: bloodstains and nineteenth-century legal medicine. JR Ann Sci. 2015;72(4):490-516. doi: 10.1080/00033790.2014.974069. Epub 2015 Feb 3.
Jessica is a degree-qualified naturopath (BHSc) specialising in vulvovaginal health and disease, based in Melbourne, Australia.
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By
Jessica Migala
January 31, 2022
Medically Reviewed by
Angela Wright Marshall, MD, FACP
LIVESTRONG.com may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story.
Many period smells are totally normal, but there are a few you should tell your doctor about.
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When to See a Doctor About Period Odor
LIVESTRONG.com may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story.
Popular vagina myth-busting ob-gyn Dr. Jen Gunter has an amazing saying : "It's a vagina, not a piña colada!" The point being, your vagina doesn't need to smell or taste fruity — or really, like anything else besides a vagina.
That includes when you're on your period. Because you may notice that, like your vagina , your period has an odor. And you know what? Most of the time, that's actually A-OK.
Here, Taraneh Shirazian, MD , a board-certified ob-gyn with NYU Langone, breaks down different period smells and their meanings.
"The period itself is basically endometrial tissue that's built up over the course of the month. If an egg is not fertilized and implanted, that lining is released," Taraneh Shirazian, MD , a board-certified ob-gyn with NYU Langone, tells LIVESTRONG.com.
The blood is from the lining of the uterus, and it has an odor all its own — it generally smells metallic. In other words, this is a completely normal smell.
"As blood exits the vagina, especially if there's a lot of bleeding, it can change the pH of the vagina," Dr. Shirazian explains. When the normal bacterial balance of the vagina is thrown off, you may develop bacterial vaginosis , or BV. This can result in a fishy smell.
Dr. Shirazian adds that this is often "self-limiting," meaning it will go away on its own without any particular treatment.
If you don't want to wait, you can talk to your doctor about a prescription for metronidazole, an antibiotic treatment for BV. (If it's tough to get to your gyno, there are online sexual health companies, such as Wisp , where you can chat with a doc about your symptoms, see if the Rx is a good option for you and then get them shipped to your home.)
Other options include eating yogurt with active cultures or popping a probiotic.
Let's say, though, that your BV comes back every month, and you're tired of it. (BV can also itch and burn, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , so it's not exactly a walk in the park.) If your periods are also really heavy and long-lasting, talk to your doctor about options that can minimize the length and duration of your period, such as oral hormonal birth control or an intrauterine device (IUD), Dr. Shirazian says.
Some vaginal bacteria can naturally have a sweet smell, according to Women's Medical Associates of Nashville . This is nothing to worry about.
But if the scent is strong and you notice other symptoms, such as cottage cheese-like discharge , burning, dryness or itchiness, you could have a yeast infection. In that case, make an appointment with your doctor.
This kind of odor should raise a red flag.
"I've seen retained tampons that can cause a really foul smell because someone has forgotten to take them out," Dr. Shirazian says. If you think you may have a tampon stuck up there but aren't able to get it out on your own, make an appointment with your ob-gyn ASAP.
It's also possible that you have an infection. If you have pus-like, green or frothy discharge, see your doctor right away, Dr. Shirazian says.
What you want to avoid is using any sort of fragranced feminine wipe designed to freshen things up down below. "The problem with these is that they just cover up the odor. The first step is always figuring out the underlying source and treating that," Dr. Shirazian says.
Similarly, vaginal washes are risky, too. You might find that you do fine with them, but they may also throw off your vagina's pH and increase the odds of a yeast infection, she says. (Also, they're unnecessary, because, remember: Your vagina is a self-cleaning oven.) Mild soap and water do just fine, because they can cleanse the area without changing vaginal pH. Simply let soapy water run down your body in the shower.
Oh, and if you wear period underwear (which are truly wonderful, btw), you may want to consider if you need to change them or if they're being properly washed. Some styles can hold several tampon's worth of blood, but yours may need to be changed sooner. Just something worth checking.
A rotten or foul odor from your nether region warrants a trip to the ob-gyn, Dr. Shirazian says.
Have a fever? In pain? Those are additional symptoms that should spur a trip to the doctor, as these may signal an infection that needs to be evaluated and treated immediately. Docs want to make sure that something — like pelvic inflammatory disease — hasn't been overlooked.
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