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For those who live with heavy periods, medically known as menorrhagia, you’re all too familiar with how much your period can interfere with daily life, especially if it’s accompanied by severe cramps.
If you have to avoid wearing light-colored clothing, call in sick to work, or stuff your bag full of tampons and pads every time you leave the house each month, there could be an underlying health issue causing the abnormally heavy bleeding.
Dealing with heavy periods every single month can be exhausting, and our team of women’s health experts at the Center for Women’s Health in Sugar Land and Richmond, Texas, wants you to know that we offer effective treatments for heavy periods.
In this month’s blog, we’re discussing possible causes of your heavy period and how we can keep your period from disrupting your life each month.
What defines a heavy period?
Not every woman has the same period flow every single month, nor does it necessarily stay consistent in every stage of life. However, a medical diagnosis of menorrhagia is typically given when you lose more than 80 milliliters of blood during your period.
Since you probably aren’t measuring your bleeding, here are some other criteria for heavy period definition:
- Bleeding for more than seven days
- Going through a tampon or pad every hour for several hours
- Needing to wear two or more sanitary products to manage heavy bleeding
- Passing blood clots larger than 2.5 centimeters (roughly the size of a quarter)
- Getting up in the night to change your tampon or pad
Those who have heavy periods may also experience extreme fatigue caused by significant blood loss.
What might be behind your heavy periods?
There’s quite a long list of things that can cause heavy periods, but thankfully, most of them can be effectively addressed by our team. Some common causes of heavy bleeding each month include:
- Hormone imbalances
- Certain medications, such as blood thinners
- High stress levels
- Transitioning to menopause (perimenopause)
- Uterine polyps or fibroids
- Cancers of the cervix, uterus, or ovaries
Many reproductive health conditions, such as endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), can also lead to heavy periods.
What treatments help with heavy periods?
It’s always important to seek treatment for heavy periods, especially if it’s a consistent issue every single month. Prolonged heavy bleeding can lead to anemia, a condition that occurs when your red blood cells are too low, causing extreme fatigue, lightheadedness, and shortness of breath.
When you see our Center for Women’s Health team for heavy periods, we begin by asking you about your cycles, including your symptoms, their severity, and their regularity. We then perform a pelvic exam and any other necessary diagnostic tests, such as an ultrasound or hysteroscopy.
Once we’ve gathered information about what’s behind your heavy periods, we can create a treatment plan that will be effective. Depending on the root cause, various methods for managing heavy bleeding include hormonal birth control, hormone therapy, prescription medications, or endometrial ablation.
To learn more about how we can help you get some much-needed relief from heavy periods, schedule an evaluation by calling your nearest office location or using our online booking feature today.