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Premenstrual staining & five days

21 August, 2009
Question:

Could you please tell me what day I can count as the first day out of 5 days when I'm niddah:
with me it's always like this
e.g.
Friday I saw red stains on the toilet paper every time I wiped myself inside after going to the bathroom. The red stains are clearly seen, but my underwear is absolutely clean
Saturday some stains on the underwear can be less than ketem
Sunday real blood flow

Thank you so much for your help.


Answer:

The five-day minimum begins when you become a niddah.  In some cases, it may begin from when a woman considers herself niddah and the couple acts accordingly (as when a woman is unsure of her status.)

Red stains on toilet paper do not necessarily make a woman a niddah.  Stains on underwear do not always make a woman a niddah, (e.g., when they are on colored underwear or smaller than a dime).  For more information about when toilet paper and stains make you niddah, please see our articles on staining in the "Becoming Niddah" section of our site.

If the stains on underwear or toilet paper made you niddah, the day on which they were found would be the first of the five days.  If you were unsure about your status and acted as though you were in niddah, they could also count toward the five days.  (Note that stains, even if they make you niddah, do not affect your veset calendar.)

If they do not make you niddah, but you wish to begin your five-day minimum sooner, as a woman with only a couple of days of flow might, then you could perform a bedikah on either Friday or Saturday. This would likely make you niddah and start the five-day clock. 

We typically recommend that a couple abstain from relations (not observing the other harchakot) when the wife has staining that does not make her niddah, as a precaution against becoming niddah during relations.  But this is a recommendation and not a halachic requirement.

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