Nishmat's Women’s Health and HalachaIn memory of Chaya Mirel bat R' Avraham

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Five days required after staining?

14 May, 2016

Question:

Is there ever a concept of being able to do a hefsek without waiting 5 days? I have the Mirena IUD and I stained. I didn’t get my period since I put it in 3 months ago. I am also nursing (very little). So do I need to wait five days? Thank you.


Answer:

Whenever a woman was tehorah and is then rendered niddah, she must wait the five day minimum prior to counting the clean days. This is true even if she became niddah from a stain and did not get an actual period.

The exception is when a woman was already niddah, and bleeding stopped and then resumed. In this case, she does not count a new five days from the time the bleeding resumed.

In your specific case, you should first confirm whether the staining you experienced actually made you niddah. This depends on several factors, including the color and size of the stain and the surface on which it was found. Please see our page on stains and get back to us or a local halachic authority with any questions. If the staining did make you niddah, you need to wait five days before beginning the seven clean days.

Going forward, once you immerse in the mikveh you should take precautions against becoming niddah from further staining by wearing colored underwear and waiting at least a few seconds (ideally 15 seconds) after urinating before wiping. Please review our pages on stains and toilet paper for more details.

Please feel free to get back to us with any further questions.

This response has been updated to reflect the rulings of our current Rabbinic Supervisor, Rav Kenneth Auman, regarding waiting before wiping.


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