Understanding Irregular Bleeding & Habits

السلام عليكم

As I have PCOS, I usually go months and months bleeding. I have been told that my bleeding habit is 9 days hayd and 15 days purity, but I should double check here.

Please can you tell me my habit and what I can and cannot do during bleeding.

Answer

In the name of Allah, the Inspirer of truth,

The minimum duration for a purity (tuhr) is 15 days/nights. If a purity lasts for less than the minimum duration, it connects the blood before and after it together. During the interim days, even though a woman does not see blood, these purity days are given the ruling of (legal) blood.

In such a case, a woman must refer to her habit in both menstruation (hayd) and purity to determine the days of hayd from irregular bleeding (istihada). The bleeding in the place of habit will be hayd, and bleeding that exceeds the hayd habit is istihada.

A habit is established from your last valid blood and purity.

A valid blood refers to the days of hayd spanning between 3-10 days. This can only be used as a habit if it is not followed by istihada. A valid purity is the gap between two valid bloods, which is 15 days or more and does not contain any bleeding or coloured discharge.

During a woman’s hayd, she cannot perform specific ritual worship, such as fasting, prayer, tawaf and recitation of Qur’an, nor can she engage in sexual intercourse with her husband or have sexual intimacy between the navel to the knee without a barrier covering one’s skin.

Please refer to these short articles on the the topic of Sacred Rulings for more information:

https://mensesmatters.org/knowledge-base/category/sacred-law-rulings/

And Allah knows best.