Heavy periods

Coping with heavy periods

Heavy periods can be distressing for any woman. Although heavy bleeding doesn’t necessarily mean anything is seriously wrong, it can affect women physically and emotionally and even disrupt everyday life.

You probably have a good idea about how much bleeding is normal during your period. If you notice your periods are heavier than usual, or they’re affecting your normal activities, we recommend going to see your GP.

It can help to keep a menstrual diary for a couple of months, making a note of how long your periods last and how often you need to change your sanitary protection. Make sure you jot down any changes in your flow and any impact on your normal routine – this will help your doctor understand how heavy your periods are.

Look out for the following signs of excessive blood loss:

• You feel you’re using an unusually high number of tampons or pads
• Flooding (heavy bleeding) through your clothes or onto your bedding
• You need to use both tampons and towels
• Bleeding for more than 8-10 days
• Bleeding so much you can’t go to work or carry on as normal
• Passing large blood clots

What causes heavy periods?

In younger women heavy periods are usually due to a temporary hormone imbalance, which eventually corrects itself.

As a woman approaches menopause (around 45 years onwards), she can experience this hormone imbalance again and her period may become heavier. However, the chance of heavy periods being caused by an underlying disease does increase with age – so if you’re at all concerned visit your GP to put your mind at rest.