Do cold medicines affect menstruation?

Written by Wang Jing Hua
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Updated on May 14, 2025
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Cold medicine itself does not affect menstruation, but having a cold can affect your constitution, which can influence your menstrual cycle. Many factors can impact menstruation, such as physical condition, excessive staying up late, fatigue, high stress, or extreme dieting or gaining weight. If your period is delayed, the first thing to consider is whether you might be pregnant, and then consider other factors that might cause the delay. If it is delayed by a week, you must first perform a pregnancy test.

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Written by Wang Chun Mei
Pulmonology
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Do you still need to take cold medicine for a cough in the later stages of a cold?

Patients with colds are generally caused by viral infections and are often self-limiting diseases, usually recovering completely within about a week. In a minority of patients, different degrees of cough may occur later on. For such cases, where there is throat itchiness and varying degrees of dryness in the throat, or even cough symptoms, it is generally not necessary to continue with cold medicine. Instead, antiviral medications and throat-clearing drugs can be used for symptomatic treatment to relieve the cough that appears later. As for the later cough, if it is a dry cough, use some cough suppressants. If there is phlegm with the cough, appropriate cough suppressants should also be used, along with antibiotics for symptomatic treatment, to provide relief. However, the use of cold medicines that relieve nasal congestion and runny nose is generally not advised at this stage.

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Written by Li Jian Wu
Pulmonology
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How many days does a cold and fever last?

Common cold and fever generally last for about three to five days. However, if it is influenza, the duration might be longer. The specific condition should be determined based on individual constitution and disease tolerance, and it generally does not exceed seven days. If the fever persists for more than a week, secondary bacterial infection or other pathogenic respiratory inflammatory factors should be considered. Chest X-rays, complete blood count, and mycoplasma tests, among other diagnostic aids, would be necessary for a precise diagnosis. Appropriate measures to reduce fever should be taken during this time.

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Written by Long Guan Han
Pulmonology
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What should I do if my cold doesn't get better?

The common cold generally follows a process. Eighty percent of common colds start as viral colds, characterized by nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, and other catarrhal symptoms. Generally, after three to five days, these catarrhal symptoms gradually disappear, as the virus is self-limiting. If the symptoms do not improve after three to five days and are accompanied by coughing, purulent sputum, and fever, it may have progressed to a bacterial cold, which requires antibiotic treatment. When we commonly refer to a persistent cold, we mainly refer to a cough. Some people might experience a cold for more than ten days, or repeatedly suffer from a dry cough. At this time, it's not that their cold hasn't healed; rather, it's because the respiratory tract has been damaged and needs time to recover. Typically, this kind of irritating dry cough without sputum generally lasts for a while.

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Written by Wang Chun Mei
Pulmonology
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Can you eat eggs when you have a cold?

A cold, commonly caused by chilling, is characterized by symptoms such as nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, fever, throat itchiness, and coughing. These symptoms often occur when the body's immune function is low, allowing viruses to take the opportunity to invade the respiratory tract. For such patients, we recommend a light diet, avoiding spicy and irritating foods. It’s advisable to eat more foods high in vitamins and proteins daily. Eggs, for instance, are high in protein and also contain nutrients such as lecithin and amino acids, which are needed by the body. Therefore, it is appropriate to eat some eggs when suffering from a cold.

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Written by Yan Xin Liang
Pediatrics
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Symptoms of a baby's cold

Generally speaking, common cold symptoms include a runny nose, sneezing, nasal congestion, some may have a cough, and others may have a fever. Generally, after most babies catch a cold, the symptoms are mainly respiratory. A small part may show symptoms of the digestive system, such as vomiting and diarrhea. There are also headaches, mental fatigue, lethargy, sleepiness, etc., so there are many symptoms of a cold.