Help! Should I be bleeding this much?

[itsgettingweird]

I started having heavy periods about 2 years ago. First 2-3 days I could flood a tampon in an hour for a few hours and then 2-3 hours sometimes.

Started mini pill December 2019 but it seemed to make things worse. Prolonged my periods, they were more painful and started light and got heavier rather than the other way around.

In June I started spotting daily with extremely heavy bleeding in between. Constant pelvic pain etc.

It was manageable but in July it got worse and I had northisterone to stop extreme bleeding. 24 hours after I stopped it it started again and I was given more and 5 days into the course fitted with the mirena coil.

24 hours after I stopped I had a period for 5 days that was normal.

My cycle went to 25 days and my periods were 10-14 days long but manageable despite still being on heavy side 2-3 days in.

My period didn't come after 25 days but on day 29 I had a light bleed that lasted 8 hours.

Following day I had some residual cramping that didn't require pain relief.
My period started again around 8pm and by 8.30 I was flooding through a tampon every 15 minutes with large clots.
I found some tranaxamic acid I had at home and took 2 but it continued until 3.30am where I was flooding and the losing huge clots when I went to the loo.
Then my coil came out.

The bleeding stopped after an hour and no bleeding at all until 8pm again last night.

Again every 15-20 minutes at times I'm flooding through a pad and then losing clots on the toilet. Some clots are as large as a pot of jelly.

I had bad cramps during night that ibuprofen, paracetamol plus and a heat bag didn't negate.

I've taken a northisterone this morning as I was prescribed some to keep just in case and can take 3 a day.

Has anyone experienced this? I'll ring GP first thing tomorrow morning but I want to know what I'm asking for and the timescales to be pushing for (I know the pandemic is affecting things).

I was already aneamic after the summer and so this blood loss has made me feel so tired.

Thing is the coil did control things.

Ok my cycle was shorter and period longer but I didn't have any really heavy flood days.

Everything seemed to be improving until this sudden bleed Friday evening.

That was very likely all the stuff in the muscle wall coming away at once.

I'm hoping that and the idea is that if they can keep my uterine lining thin with progesterone then it'll be under control more.

I'll just have to wait and see what happens over the next month or so but I'm not going to sit back and accept this monthly.

Right now though I'm having a normal fairly even period and will keep taking the northisterone for a few months

Oh you poor thing. I really feel for you as I had this a few years ago. Eventually I had an ablation and a coil fitted. Touch wood it’s been great. 3 years on I’m starting to have longer periods again (8-9 days, compared to 4-5) but they’re light.

Could you get a private appointment? I have no idea how expensive that’d be!

And definitely get high-strength iron pills, as being anaemic can (weirdly) make periods heavier.

And gave you discovered the super-strong Lilets tampons? They come in an organ he box and I’ve only ever found them on Amazon. They have 6 “droplets” on the box - to show how absorbent they are; super-plus tampons only have 5. They were the only ones that worked for me. They’re SO absorbent, you could empty a bath with one!

They come in an orange box! Not an organ box! 😂

These tampons: www.amazon.co.uk/Lil-Lets-Non-Applicator-Tampons-Extremely-8222000P/dp/B081F6VNWY/ref=mp_s_a_1_16?dchild=1&keywords=lillets+super+super&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1604427173&sr=8-16

Fucking hell, you poor woman.

If this happened to men there’d be no way they’d be fobbed off with a scan in a year’s time and the promise of some treatment in the new year!

OP push for a referral to a gynaecologist. I had similar, which began around 4 years ago when I was 44. Progressively heavy periods and I would flood through tampons and pads in no time. I had a scan in 2016 which showed nothing sinister. In November last year I had the period from hell which went on for a month. I eventually managed to see my GP at the end of January who referred me for another scan, just for reassurance really as he suspected it was just part and parcel of the peri menopause.

The scan showed an extremely thick endometrium and multiple polyps so I was referred to a gynaecologist who then sorted out a hysteroscopy with a view to removing the polyps and fitting a mirena. At the same time they took a biopsy. I'm so glad that my Dr referred me as it turned out I had stage one endometrial cancer. All this happened in lockdown but fortunately I was in hospital having a full hysterectomy within two weeks. I dread to think how it might have turned out if I'd ignored it or I'd not had that initial referral.

I don't want to worry you, but I was so convinced that it was just 'my age' that had I not had a really awful period this time last year, I probably would have left it a bit longer. Don't accept it's just part and parcel of being a woman of a certain age and ask to be referred.

@MacbookHo

And gave you discovered the super-strong Lilets tampons? They come in an organ he box and I’ve only ever found them on Amazon. They have 6 “droplets” on the box - to show how absorbent they are; super-plus tampons only have 5. They were the only ones that worked for me. They’re SO absorbent, you could empty a bath with one!

Thanks that's great. I can't use normal super plus tampons but lillets tend to be shorter so I'll give them a whirl!

As pp says definitely push for a referral to a gynae ASAP.

The periods you describe were my normal ones. I'd be fobbed off with some hormonal pill or coil or implant and for a while they seemed to work. Until they didn't. I ejected two mirenas after 4 months both times despite the mirena helping until that point.

Ultrasounds nearly always looked ok other than occasional fibroids. Transvaginal scan was eventually given that showed a very thick endometrium and what they thought was a polyp. I ended up with an ablation and hysteroscopy, thankfully nothing cancerous but the description of my uterus afterwards by the gynae was littered with polyps and fibroids

I still occasionally get a weird period where I clot a bit even now, though nothing like I was and then return to new normal low flow. Am now on blood thinners though so am looking forward to my first period on those given the warnings 😬