How Do I Know If My Menstrual Bleeding is Heavy?

You look at the calendar with dread as you realize another period is on the horizon. Unlike many of your friends who seem to skip right through their menstrual cycles, you have messy and disruptive periods that are impacting your quality of life.

Studies report that 1 in 10 women of reproductive age experience heavy bleeding and you want to know if that statistic includes you.

To answer this question, we turn to the team at Women’s Wellness MD, led by Dr. Chetanna Okasi. We routinely help women with heavy bleeding, so we have extensive experience in this area. With that in mind, here’s what we consider to be heavy bleeding, what’s often behind the common issue, and how we can help.

Defining heavy bleeding

Let’s get straight to the heart of the matter and outline the characteristics of heavy bleeding, which include:

Soaking through your protection every hour or two

Whether you use tampons or pads, if you need to change them every hour or two during your period, this is a telltale sign of heavy bleeding. Most women experience heavier flow during the first day of their periods, but even a heavy flow shouldn’t leak through tampons or pads within an hour.

As a result, women with heavy bleeding often double up with tampons and pads to handle the abnormally heavy flow.

Soaking through protection at night

Under normal circumstances, bleeding at night is often reduced. Women who have heavy bleeding, on the other hand, can soak through their protection at night.

Longer periods

Most periods last about 3-7 days. If your periods last longer than a week, we categorize this as heavy bleeding.

Large blood clots

You might notice that some of your period blood can contain clots, which is perfectly normal. If your clots are the size of a quarter or larger, however, this is a sign of heavy bleeding.

In severe cases, women with heavy bleeding can develop iron-deficiency anemia.

Common causes of heavy bleeding

There are many roads to heavy bleeding, and some of the more commonly traveled ones include:

• Uterine fibroids — benign growths in the uterus that affect up to 80% of women
• Adenomyosis — endometrial tissues grow into the walls of your uterus
• Polycystic ovary syndrome — an ovulation disorder
• Bleeding disorders
• Certain medications, such as blood thinners
• Pelvic inflammatory disease

Less commonly, reproductive cancers can lead to heavy menstrual bleeding.

Next steps when you have heavy bleeding

If you feel the heavy bleeding category applies to you, your next step is an easy one — come in for an evaluation. As you can see by the potential list of causes, it’s important to get to the bottom of your heavy bleeding — for your reproductive health and your quality of life.

When it comes to remedying your heavy bleeding, it’s tough to say here what might be appropriate since there are different causes of heavy bleeding. Rest assured, once we identify the issue, we'll work with you until we find a suitable solution.

For expert diagnosis and treatment of your heavy bleeding, we invite you to contact us by calling one of our offices in Columbia or Greenbelt, Maryland, or by using our online booking feature.