HealthInfo Canterbury

Overview of heavy periods

When you've had several periods where the blood loss is excessive and causes problems in your daily life, it's called getting heavy periods. The medical term for heavy periods is menorrhagia.

Menorrhagia is very common, particularly when you have just started getting periods, or you're coming up to menopause. They're not usually a sign of anything serious.

Causes of heavy periods

In most cases there's no cause for the heavy bleeding. Occasionally there is a cause, which can include:

• fibroids in your womb (uterus)
• endometrial polyps
• endometriosis
• your intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD or IUS)
• hormonal problems such as polycystic ovary syndrome
• infections of the womb or pelvic inflammatory disease
• cancer of the lining of the womb
• medications, including those used to thin your blood such as warfarin
• some blood clotting disorders.

Symptoms of heavy periods

The amount of blood that's lost during your period varies a lot from person to person. If your periods are heavy, you may:

• have to change tampons or pads many times a day
• get up at night to change your tampon or pad
• need to wear two pads or a pad and a tampon at the same time
• pass large clots during your period
• have bleeding that soaks through your clothes or bedding – this is called flooding.

The loss of blood might make you feel very tired. This could mean you have low iron in your blood which can cause anaemia.

Getting help with heavy periods

If you're concerned about your periods, or if period problems are disrupting your life, you should make an appointment with your GP.

It's important to see your doctor if you have heavy periods and any of the following are true:

• You're aged over 35
• you've suddenly started getting heavy periods
• you have pelvic pain
• you have bleeding after sex
• you have bleeding between periods
• sex is painful
• your periods are irregular.

  HealthInfo recommends the following pages

• NHS – Heavy periods

  Information about the causes of heavy periods, what happens when you see your GP, and treatment options, plus a heavy period self-assessment test.

On the next page: Diagnosing heavy periods

Written by HealthInfo clinical advisers. Last reviewed September 2021.

Sources

Page reference: 884819

Review key: HIPER-53354