What Causes Heavy Periods and What to Do About Them

You long to be one of those women who only need a few low-flow tampons or pads to get through their periods each month. Your menstrual experiences are far different as you navigate the messy world of heavy menstrual bleeding.

We assure you that you aren’t alone — about one in 10 women in the United States experiences heavy bleeding, which is medically known as menorrhagia.

To give you a better idea about the ins and outs of abnormal bleeding, the team of gynecology experts at Bay Area Physicians for Women’s Health is tackling this subject in this month’s blog post. Here's what we want you to know about heavy periods.

What makes a period heavy

A great place to start this discussion is to outline what we mean by heavy periods, as it isn’t easy to measure the flow of blood. Instead, here’s what we look out for:

Soaking through your protection

If you need to change your tampons or pads every few hours, or you need to change them at night when bleeding is typically lighter, this is a sign of heavy bleeding. As well, if you double up on protection with two pads or a pad and a tampon, this indicates heavier-than-normal bleeding.

Prolonged bleeding

Periods shouldn’t last more than a week, so if you have heavy periods that extend beyond seven days, this is abnormal.

Large blood clots

If you notice large blood clots mixed in with your periods, this is a sign of heavy menstrual bleeding.

We should also mention that women who have heavy periods can also develop iron-deficiency anemia due to the blood loss, though this isn’t all that common.

Causes of heavy bleeding

Now that we've reviewed what makes a period “heavy,” let’s look at potential drivers of this issue. 

The most common causes of heavy periods include:

• Uterine fibroids
• Adenomyosis
• Ovulation disorders
• Endometriosis
• Certain medications, such as blood thinners
• Reproductive cancers

We want to mention that some women simply have naturally heavy periods that have been there from the start. Other women, however, develop heavy bleeding later in life and, when this happens, it’s important to have us check it out. Changes in menstrual cycles are common and not always cause for concern, but they can be, so we want to investigate.

We also want to mention that our list isn’t complete, as we’ve focused on the more common drivers of menorrhagia.

Finding relief from heavy periods

As we just mentioned, if your periods have changed and are heavier than usual, please see us so that we can determine the change.

Even if you’ve historically had heavy periods, see us if they’re disruptive, as we can help you better manage your menstrual cycles.

Guessing which solutions might work best to manage your heavy periods depends on whether there's an underlying issue that needs to be addressed. In these cases, that’s where we might focus our efforts to relieve your heavy periods.

Some examples of treatments for heavy bleeding include:

• Hormone therapies
• Birth control
• Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists and antagonists
• Lifestyle changes, such as losing weight
• Endometrial ablation
• Myomectomy (fibroid removal)
• Hysterectomy

To figure out the best treatment for your heavy bleeding, it’s a good idea to come in and sit down with one of our providers. To set that in motion, you can contact our office in Mobile, Alabama, to schedule an appointment.