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Original poster

To wonder what is classed as a "heavy period"?? TMI

66 replies

Skinit · 31/03/2011 23:39

How am I meant to know? It's not like I can compare mooncups with anyone! (not that I use them but you know wha I mean)

I THINK mine are heavy...I bleed for about 5 dys and it's horrid. Been d since having kids...they were ok before. Now I can FEEL it flowing out of me...and the "flowing" goes on for what feels an unreasonable amount of time [bleugh]

I have to change pads about hourly....or more often.

I all this normal?

OP posts:
HattiFattner · 02/04/2011 09:05

I use a mooncup and, prior to having my mirena fitted, was losing 300-400ml per month. However, gyn says this in not all blood, its also mixed with other fluids. Horrendous. one month I lost that in 2 days. I felt dreadful. Luckily never got anaemic.

Now on mirena I lose about 20ml a day on period, which is a great trade off for me. Periods lasting 3 weeks though. But hoping now we are close the magic 6 months, It will settle down.

If not, Im insisting on an ablation.

fairtradefloozy · 02/04/2011 15:56

Feeling dreadful right now - I have to change tampax plus pad every hour or so and sleep on the spare bed with bathtowels to protect for about two days. I don't want to do anything like go out. Hate going anywhere. Off to see the GP, thanks!

Tas1 · 02/04/2011 17:42

I have heavy periods.
I have to use tampons and pads during the day and I can't go out very far as I can often leak onto my clothing.
At night I have to sleep with a bath towel between my legs.
I quite often have to rush to the loo as I have blood running down my legs.

I am almost housebound for about 3-4 days every period.

bigTillyMint · 02/04/2011 17:48

I have had very heavy periods recently, like the ones described above.

My GP did blood tests and I was found to be anaemic (not surprising!) and so I am now on iron tablets. I am feeling back to my old energy levelsSmile

SO please go and get your iron levels checked if you haven't already.

Also, as I am apparently low risk, she has put me on a progesterone only pill which makes the flow much lighter or not at all. I haven't had a period yet - only 3 weeks though!

bamboobutton · 02/04/2011 17:59

i find it hard to believe 5ml saturates a normal pad, thats only a teaspoons worth!!
i'm going to have to test it to see now.
i can remember the school nurse giving us a talk on periods and said you lose about an eggcupful every period, i just sat there thinking what!? i lose more than that when im sat in the bath.

i can bleed through a super plus tampon in under 20 minutes.

Gracie123 · 02/04/2011 18:05

Hate to say it but mooncup is the way forward if you want a dr to take yous seriously. I spent years arguin with doctors about how painful it was (no one cares, how nauseous I was (no one cares) and how heavy it was (no one cared).

Then I got a mooncup and saw my GP with an accurate measurement of how much blood I'd lost in two days. She was horrified, as was the consultant I was referred to. I have been taken seriously ever since Grin and no longer have to deal with periods at all (hooray!)

Gracie123 · 02/04/2011 18:07

PS it's different for everyone but my consultant finds mirena coil + contraceptive injections monthly stop periods completely for most women.

confuddledDOTcom · 02/04/2011 18:27

If you're changing more than two hours then you're losing more than normal. I agree a mooncup is useful for discussions with your doctor about your flow. I was losing 100ml a day for 12 weeks and exclusively breastfeeding, I felt so bad! Being able to give accurate information helped my case. Never found out what it was. US was clear and it just stopped on it's own. They couldn't give me anything because of my thrombophilia but didn't need to anyway.

bamboobutton · 02/04/2011 18:55

i've done my experiment!

i only have super towels and night time ones so i used a super one.

it took 8 teaspoons to saturate it which is about 40ml.

Gracie123 · 02/04/2011 19:09

How very scientific bamboo. The only problem is, I think blood is slightly more viscous than water.
For it to be a truly fair test you'd need something similar. Cream perhaps?

bamboobutton · 02/04/2011 19:13

5ml is 5ml surely?

i don't want to waste any more towels, or spend ages finding something similar in consistency to blood

Karstan · 02/04/2011 20:14

Before I'd got the mooncup I'd always gone along with the "it probably looks more than it actually is" school of thought. It was useful to have a proper way of measuring.

I'm chronically anaemic but there isn't much in the way of options for me to manage my periods (ttc-ing)

cece · 02/04/2011 20:32

Definition here. I didn't realise mine were considered abnormal till an chance chat with the nurse during my smear test.

The doc gave me some tablets to take during my period which helped a bit (as we were still TTC). Since I have had my last baby now I have a MIrena coil fitted and barely notice them now. It is marvellous. Smile

Original poster
Skinit · 02/04/2011 20:39

bamboo I will try tomato sauce! Slightly watered down I think! Grin

OP posts:
Tanith · 02/04/2011 20:48

I can do better than that Grin. Mine used to go on for 7 days and, for the first 2 days, I had to wear industrial Super strength tampons, plus 3 carefully arranged night-time pads. They all had to be changed every 2 hours or so. Calmed down a bit after that then, round about day 4/5, I would have another bad day.
I have a clotting problem (not haemophilia) so that explains why.
They're better these days, thanks to that alternative medicine beginning with H that seems to upset so many people on here Wink, but still on the heavy side.

FlaminGreatGallah · 02/04/2011 21:01

While I am outing myself as a former poster with a recent name-change yet again, may I refer heavy bleeders to this, this and this?

One percent of the population suffer and usually end up having unnecessary interventions such as early hysterectomy. Women are particularly vulnerable to having their symptoms brushed off, ignored or trivialised by medical professionals.

Please ask to be tested. It isn't cheap and it isn't usually done unless you have a child with a "double dose" of the gene who may have the condition in a severe form. But the difference between my care when having DD and then DS when I was diagnosed, even with the mild form was astonishing. They knew then that childbirth was very hazardous for me and I wasn't left alone and every effort was made to prevent a PPH or tearing.

Well worth investigating and it makes me very angry that more people aren't aware of it. There is an expectation that women have to put up and shut up about these things and it is not right.

compo · 02/04/2011 21:09

If you put two tampons up there how do you get the first one out?!?

FlaminGreatGallah · 02/04/2011 21:12

You pull it up through your throat of course

After the last one has been removed.

Karstan · 02/04/2011 21:44

It's interesting reading about the mid-cycle bleeding with von Willebrand's, that was the symptom that first prompted me to go to the doctors, gushes of blood around ovulation. The investigations revealed fibroids and polyps though, I've never had any blood tests regarding this issue.

FlaminGreatGallah · 02/04/2011 21:51

Sorry to hear about the complications Karstan.

The blood test are not simple and they have to look for an absence or lower-than-usual level of Von Willebrands factor. It really isn't routine. But for 1% of the population affected it should be. But we are mere women and are known to overreact Hmm

Xales · 02/04/2011 23:40

Just watched that embarrassing bodies program and I am gobsmacked.

I use a mooncup and the first 1.5 days and during a bad period I have to change it every half hour to hour otherwise I have heavy flooding.

During a good one if I am lucky every hour and a half before I end up looking like roadkill.

Where do they get their average figures from it seems really low!

confuddledDOTcom · 03/04/2011 00:16

That's interesting Flamin. I think for me it's linked into the autoimmune disease that makes me thrombophiliac, I was on the pill for 10 years to control it, went on about 13 or 14 because it was making me so ill. For awhile I used to think I'm fortunate not to have had strokes, but I realised actually I was suffering regular TIAs during that time so I'm fortunate it wasn't worse!

My youngest daughter is being tested soon - first appointment with rheumatology next week - but my eldest, if she doesn't show any signs before, will be tested before she's put on the pill (if she needs it).

I seriously get cross at programmes where they treat the pill as taboo for teen girls, like it can only be given for contraception. I was on it for cycle control and because it worked better than any antidepressant (they all make me ill and the pill didn't, apart from putting me at higher risk of a clot but hey). My GP once sent Mum out the room to ask me if I was having sex as she thought I wouldn't talk in front of Mum.

SaggyHairyArse · 03/04/2011 09:00

I am glad to see this thread. I have been having dreadful periods. I went out for lunch with my BF, changed before and during and still soaked through my clothes and made a mess of the chair Blush

I had a coil before having my 3 DC but don't want one fitted as am hoping to TTC with my BF so have been grinning and bearing it but it is dreadful. I went on the combined pill last year and bled nearly every day so came off it as was aneamic. Last month was dreadul, I could barely walk for 3 days and had a 9 day period. So ive been put on the mini-pill to hopefully prevent me getting aneamic and am having an ultrasound next week to see if it is fibroids.

If I wasn't hoping to have a baby this/next year, I would gladly have a hysterectomy.

SaggyHairyArse · 03/04/2011 09:01

PS. I have no idea what is classed as a heavy period but if you can't manage it with normal sanitary products it can't be right, can it?

purpleknittingmum · 03/04/2011 09:26

After watching the Embarrassing Bodies show I am now going to see how much I lose. I don't think it will be over the 80ml

So far in about 24 hours I have lost 19 ml

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