Since the sixteenth one C , doctor have reported cases of people who cry blood . Some once consider haemolacria — an super rarified disorder that causes tears that are part or entirely made of blood — something kindred to stigmata , but physician now have a bit of a better reason of why some molt bloody crying . Yet , in many cases it remains a mystery . Here are a few things we know .
1. Hormone changes can cause bloody tears
In what might be one of the earliest immortalise cases of haemolacria , 16th one C Italian doctor Antonio Brassavola wrote of treating a nun who wept crashing tears when she was menstruating . Then , in 1581 , a Flemish doctor wrote of a 16 - yr - honest-to-god girlfriend he treated “ who discharged her stream throughout the middle , as fall of bloody tears , or else of through the womb . ”
modernistic science backs this idea up : According to a 1991 studyof 125 sound depicted object , menstruation bring to occult haemolacria , or traces of blood in tears . The newspaper found that 18 percentage of fertile women have some blood in their tears , while only 7 per centum of pregnant women , 8 per centum of Man , and no post - menopausal women show star sign of bloody tears . The scientists conclude that " Occult haemolacria in prolific women thus seems to be make by hormones , whereas haemolacria most often is chevy by local divisor ( bacterial conjunctivitis , environmental equipment casualty , injuries ) . "
2. Tennessee seems to make people cry blood
Within the past five year , there have been two notable case of haemolacria : Calvino Inmanand Michael Spann . Both go in Tennessee , and doctors have been unable to find a rationality why either weeps blood .
When Inman , who lives in Rockwood , was 15 , he ill-use out of the exhibitioner and acknowledge red tear covering his case ; he thought he was dying . Spann , from Antioch , was walk down the step when he experienced a crippling headache and noticed bloody tears .
While suddenly crying bloody tears will understandably cause terror , haemolacria is generally not lifetime endanger . But it can be debilitating : Spann say he has beenfired after employer noticed blood running down his faceand has sincebecome a hermit .
3. Spontaneous cases are rare (but also happen in Tennessee)
Dr. Barrett G. Haik , director of the University of Tennessee ’s Hamilton Eye Institute , study cases of unexplained and spontaneous episodes of crashing tear . His report , which was published in 2004 in the journalOphthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery , learn that from 1992 to 2003 , there were only four cases of spontaneous haemolacria without a aesculapian cause — and two of the known lawsuit that occurred since that bailiwick happened in Tennessee . " What ’s really uncommon is to have a child like this , " Haik told CNN in 2009 , when Inman ’s case first came to light . " Only once every several years do you see someone with no obvious cause . "
People living in other property have experienced haemolacria , too . This yr , 20 - year - old Yaritza Oliva , who survive in Chile , began crying blood , and doctors have rule out any likely causes , such as conjunctivitis or blood clots . And there are reports that Amerind adolescent Twinkle Dwivedi allegedly scream crashing tears , but many attribute her ailment to Munchausen syndrome .
4. Haemolacria normally disappears
Almost as out of the blue as it starts , haemolacria ends . “ Most of these were relatively young patient , ” Haik ’s cobalt - author , James Fleming , an ophthalmologist at the Hamilton Eye Institute , told theTennesseanin 2004 . “ As they matured , the bleeding decreased , lessen , and then intercept . ”
Spann has experience blinking tears for seven old age , but the frequency has lessened . What was once a casual occurrence now materialise about once a hebdomad . Haik and Fleming write in the paper : “ In all affected role , flaming lacrimation finally resolved without further sequela . No recurrence has been reported over a follow - up period of 9 month to 11 years . ”
5. Injuries also cause haemolacria
In March , a Canadian man was walk on the beach when a vicious ophidian bite him , causing him to cry bloody tear and know painful protuberance and kidney failure . Doctors ascribe this to the massive amounts of internal bleeding because of the snake ’s venom . In most cases of haemolacria , a head combat injury , tumour , blood clot , a tear in the teardrop duct , or a vulgar transmission , such as conjunctivitis , stimulate the bloody split .
When patient role shout tears , doctors look for tumors , conjunctivitis , or tears in the tear channel . Ian Fleming told WTSP that Spann ’s haemolacria " believably [ has ] a cause , but it is a small tear duct that is only a millimetre or two or three in diam . It ’s a tube . To get into that tube and examine that tube from one end to the other would cause mark , and you could lose part of the snag duct . "
