To be really shocked about periods

[Belindamaee]

My periods have always been what I considered normal.

Small amount of blood. Definitely not enough for any leaking. One normal sized pad will do and I could keep it on all day before changing it but change it every few hours for sanitary purposes.

If I buy a tampon it will stay in for about 5 hours without leaking nor needing to be changed.

There just isn't much blood. No pain. Nothing. In fact, I forget I'm on my period.

I do however have horrid symptoms prior to my period so it evens out. Awfully sore boobs, water retention that makes me look a stone heavier, headache, low mood.

So I don't have it easy!

Anyway, this has come up as my friend was telling me she has to use a pad with a tampon as a tampon would leak if it was just used on its own. She said she has to lie flat in bed when using a pad because otherwise she would leak and she has to change her pad every three hours.

I was wondering what was normal?

AIBU to think my circumstances are more common than hers? Or do my periods seem unusually light?

Both seem fairly common. I would recommend a moon cup as it copes with all flow rates and volumes without needing pads as well and is easy to keep clean. They seem far more hygienic than tampons and are generally more comfortable

I would assume that your friend was average, ie around the middle ground between light and heavy.

I have debilitating headaches from start to finish (with prescription meds, doubled up with ibuprofen to get me through the day) and up to 5 days of bleeding where I have to change super sized tampon every hour. I have to constantly remind myself to go to the loo so that I don't bleed through, even with a pad and tampon.

I also get stomach cramps that send shooting, stabbing pains down my legs and up my back. Also nausea and sweaty/shaking feeling.

I would say that mine are 'quite heavy' but not bad enough to need medical intervention beyond the pain killers.

Is anyone else left feeling after reading 7 pages of this that possibly there is a huge lack of medical research and understanding (many male GPs particularly) of this whole issue?

I will never forget three years ago taking DD aged 12 to see our GP (he was in his early 40s), after she'd projectile vomited all up the cloakroom walls due to the intensity of period pain (I suspected endometriosis - this was not a one-off occurrence)... for his sole piece of sage advice to be, "Well, periods can be quite painful, you know."

After a lot of pain and many consultations - with various other medicos - my DD is now minus her appendix oddly this did not 'fix' her pain but is now finding things more bearable on the Pill. (First one, Rigevidon, nearly sent her round the twist mentally, but she is now trying another which has at least got her through her GCSEs in reasonably sane fashion.)

Medical help has been extremely hit and mostly miss, but it bothers me that male doctors particularly seem to be SO lacking in knowledge and understanding of menstrual/hormonal issues affecting 50% of their clientele. It is horriying that much of what one has to rely on when doing one's own research in the absence of decent responses from GPs, is anecdotal. The amount of proper modern research into the effects of the various types of marketed Pill is shocking, for example.

onelegged have been under gynae had scans, biopsies, polyps removed and found to have thickening of uterus lining but they can't find anything. Apparently it's just 'me'! I'm glad I'm not the only one suffering though, it's seems that way in RL as none of my friends suffer from bad periods. Oh, except one, she had an ablation and no longer has periods, lucky thing!

Yes I hate reading people saying that incredibly heavy and long periods are a result of something wrong. I have had investigations, and apart from a small fibroid, very common given I am mid 50s, nothing has ever been found.

I think it's just your normal. I always thought mine were normal until I used a menstrual cup and on my heaviest day it leaked because it was full after an hour. I googled how much blood is lost during a period and the average is something like 40ml. I'd estimate I lose 3-4 times that which explains why I feel so shit on my period. I've never been to a GP about it because it's normal for me, they have been like that since I was 12 and I don't think there's anything wrong. It's the way I am.

I read the study on the average amount lost. It was done on a small group of women many years ago.

Everyone is different. Before DD my periods were really heavy and painful
DD - really regular and less painful
Ectopic - not as regular anything from 24-32 DC but it could either be heavy period no pain or lighter and lots of pain
Currently pregnant so don't know after this one
I've always had 5 DC
1-2 heaviest
3 - really light
4 - light until the evening where it was really heavy and painful especially before children
5 - light spotting

On the first few days I have to use tampons and pads or ill leak everywhere. I can push out a tampon with my heavy flow within 30 minutes. My record is five minutes.

I got on well with the mooncup for a few years but it started to make me pee all the time or it completely stopped me from being able to wee. I played with the placement for a while but it didn't help. I have no idea what that was all about. It was very odd to be bursting for a wee but being incapable of going and it was as annoying as hell to feel like you need a wee every few seconds but there was nothing there.

Yes I hate reading people saying that incredibly heavy and long periods are a result of something wrong.

It depends on your definition of "something being wrong" though doesn't it? To me, something is wrong if periods affects quality of life to the extent it seems to for some posters on here.

It might be something that there should be help for. But it does not mean that there is actually anything wrong with your body like endometriosis.

to me yours sound very light.

On day one I used to have a super plus tampon plus a thick towel. It would last 2 hours and then both needed changing.

I recognise that this was not usual, I had heavy periods. But when was younger and had more 'normal' periods I would use super tamoons and change every 2 hours in the morning, 3 hours by evening.

I now have the mirena coil which has literally been liberating. I could not go out and about unless good loos available.

Rainbow if I was you I would be very careful about the risk of anaemia.
It might be your normal (it's actually very hard to know what is normal re periods) but it doesn't mean that it's not flooding periods and thatbit will have some effects in your body.
It's great that you are happy with. Not everyone is. And it would be a shame that some women do not seek help for their very heavy/flooding periods 'because there is nothing wrong about it'.
Same with period pains btw. It was seein as 'normal' and part of wing a woman for a long time. Something you werent supposed to complain about. Nope, you are just supposed to get in with life as if nothing was happening, bear it and grin it and seeing a recent thread about a guy freaking out that a woman has some periods, it seems that that sort of idea is still around too

It's very good that that's ort of things is talked about and not seen as a taboo or something you just get on with regardless of how shit it makes you feel.

It might be something that there should be help for. But it does not mean that there is actually anything wrong with your body like endometriosis.

I think that most women have a certain amount of endometriosis. Those with painful and very heavy periods are likely to have more than those who don't.

Fwiw if some people want an idea of what is 'normal' or not.

Changing a tampon or a pad every two just or more is what is called flooding periods. This often leads to problems of tiredness during and often a good week after the period. This can also be linked with anaemia when it has gone on for a while.

It can be linked with endometriosis or fibroids. It's possible that no 'biological' cause is found (aka the medical profession doesn't know). But it certainly is NOT something Benin and that should be discounted.

For anyone who doesn't dare going out if there isn't a loo close by, I would say that this needs a trip to the GP for some check ups.

dawnz: "Is anyone else left feeling after reading 7 pages of this that possibly there is a huge lack of medical research and understanding (many male GPs particularly) of this whole issue?"

Absolutely. It's shocking to read some of this stuff - I wonder how people cope in day-to-day life. Am just waiting for one of the "menstruation isn't an illness" brigade to turn up.

I have to change a super tampon every hour on heavy days. I have had tests, nothing is biologically wrong. It is peri menopause. I have issues with tiredness and anemia, unsurprisingly. But all I have been offered is a Mirena coil, that I do not want.

I also have periods lasting up to two weeks now I am going through peri menopause. Yes it makes life difficult, as do other aspects of peri menopause. As soon as one symptom gets better, something else gets worse.

I have to change a super tampon every hour on heavy days. I have had tests, nothing is biologically wrong.

They may not have found a medical cause but that doesn't mean nothing is wrong. It just means that they can't find what is wrong. I think you are being fobbed off if you have been informed changing a super tampon every hour is normal in perimenopause as I don't think most women experience that. I certainly didn't.
Even their assertion that fibroids are very common by your age so can't be the cause of heavy periods is not necessarily true as those with light periods and no fertility problems never have gynaecological investigations so how can they know if there is any difference?

I have 1 small fibroid.Not fibroids.
I have had a difficult peri menopause, but so did my mother.
Lots of women I have spoken to say they have some flooding in peri menopause. I have not had it for most of my peri menopause, but am getting it now. My peri menopause has been really shit and has massively affected me. From a year of waking up every morning at 2.30am without fail and not been able to get back to sleep for a few hours, to a year of crippling anxiety and depression only partially treated successfully by tablets.

Well I'm another flooder then,super++ tampon and night towel and changing at least hourly ATM.Yes I've been investigated,nothing abnormal.
I have always had periods like these except pre school they were very painful too,labour was shorter and less painful .I get very tired,mostly due to having to get up several times at night to change.For some of us this is out normality.

Lots of women I have spoken to say they have some flooding in peri menopause.

Yes, but other people's definitions of flooding may not be the same as yours. I might say that I was "flooding" if I needed to change a sanitary towel every 2 or three hours though as that would be very heavy blood flow for me and only happened when I had a coil.
As I said, people who have light relatively non painful periods never have gynaecological investigations unless they have fertility problems so I don't really think it is possible for medical professionals to compare.

I went to my GP and got told "that must be annoying"
Ummm yeah!!!!!

I just sit on the loo for ages now on my worse day, thing is, Im on a two week cycle. I leak over night, leak during the day. I get PMT so bad I've self harmed and packed a bag to leave my family.

But all the doctor could do is tilt her head to the side and say its annoying

Roomster flooding isn't over 2/3 hours....flooding is when you literally flood a large amount in one go and generally need to change the towel straight away.

You can have heavy flow over two or three hours which isn't flooding.

kickhiminthe uts have you tried meds like Norithisterone or Mefanamic acid?