*WARNING: TMI* AIBU to think this isn't normal? (re. periods, photo included)

[Bel04]

I feel like this might be a stupid post and that maybe all women experience this but when I'm on my period it's excruciatingly painful and I pass huge lumps of tissue (not clots) like the one in the picture down below. Am I the only person who experiences this. It's been happening to me for years and years.

Thanks for any help and advice and if I'm being unreasonable and this is totally normal please be kind to me 🙏🏻 xx

• [Note from MNHQ: we've edited the title to make the content clear]

You need to go to the doctor. They are used to discussing these sorts of issues - they see lots of women on a regular basis with these sorts of problems. Can you take someone with you for support?

Ask them to try you on tranexamic acid with the mefenamic acid - the combination helps with pain as well as blood loss.

Fibroids/polyps could also be the cause - you would need a scan for these.

It could be all sorts of things, including endometriosis, so you really do need to pluck up the courage to see a gynecologist. Some women have problems getting endometriosis diagnosed and managed and there is lots of information on the website of endometriosis uk.

Try to get yourself a gynaecologist appointment through the gp. Make sure it is a proper gynaecologist, not some gp surgery half an hours drive away with a scanner (been there, done that). You can get proper scans with up to date equipment and samples of your womb lining analysed if appropriate. If you’re passing things like that, you could have endometriosis, adenomyosis (difficult to detect unless experienced and newer scanning machines), fibroids, polyps etc.

I have a lot of pain the days I pass clots and this could just be a clot, it’s hard to tell on the screen. I may end up getting a hysterectomy because the pain is so severe. I have just started taking apple cider vinegar (with the mother) to try to help with the pain as mine is all month long now due to endo and adenomyosis. Acv is supposed to be really good with this one so I will see

It looks normal to me. But given the choice, I wouldn't have looked!

You should never been embarrassed about going to your dr. They see and hear this kind of thing all day, every day.

Most importantly, putting off a gp appointment could genuinely kill you. Is your embarrassment worth your life??

Just seen you talking about your hymen. Are you quite young? You need to get checked out. Some of these conditions left untreated ruin fertility for good.

Bel - I really get your fear of doctors now. I had heavy periods and had the most enormous fight with the NHS to get any kind of help. By the end, I was bleeding like you describe every single day without remission and I still struggled to get a referral. I ended up so anemic that they couldn't operate without doing iron and blood transfusions first. I couldn't even get upstairs without nearly fainting, and I had to give up my job because I couldn't manage the flow and I would just leak everywhere.

The NHS made a awful problem so much worse. So I get the feelings of not wanting to see doctors, and not trusting them. I really do. However, I do think you need to get past that, because unfortunately illness is something that can happen to any of us at any time. It is possible to do it - I've been back a few times, and it gets easier with each return. If there is one thing the experience taught me it is that in the modern NHS you have to push, push, push for the treatment you need. It is a fight. It shouldn't be, but it is.

I've started getting these every period - it's like a chunk of liver. I don't have heavy periods or a lot of blood loss at the same time though, if I did I would probably see the GP.

I'm post-menopausal now thank heaven but clots like this and very heavy bleeding were the norm for me. Agree with the poster who said keeping a light, clean diet helpsnot too much sweet and dairy foodand also homeopathic treatment did help. For the latter you need to go to a professional homeopath and not self-treat. I should add that I did go on the pill for a few months when young (pre-clots) and it messed up my hormones for literally decades in a very serious way. I ended up with severe allergies that took a lot of sorting out via diet tweaking and homeopathy.

My periods have always had huge clots in and been painful. I have just accepted that as normal. I thought all periods were like this.

I 'flood'. I can stand up and suddenly have very heavy menstrual blood flow. I was always leaking everywhere and have had many mishaps.

I've just assumed it was normal as I've never really discussed it with anyone else.

Get a new doctor.

This should not be taken as medical advice. If you are worried, go to see your doctor and ask them.
The photo you have posted has the appearance of a decidual (aka endometrial) cast. They form in the presence of the hormone progesterone. Are you on a progesterone based contraceptive? Are you receiving progesterone based treatment for endometriosis? Is there any way you could have had an early pregnancy that has failed? These are sometimes seen in the context of ectoptic pregnancy - pregnancy outside the womb that can be dangerous.
Go to your doctor and find out about it. You might ask them if it could be an endometrial cast. They will probably look a bit surprised and look it up.

I don't really want to go to the GP as now I find I get increasingly nervous and sweaty going there. I really don't trust them. :/

I mean this kindly. You're being an idiot, OP. Not for getting nervous. For not trusting doctors in general. It is of course possible that you come across a terrible doctor, but that happens in all walks of life - you go and find another one you're happy with.

But you really need to see a doctor. Do you expect to go through your life without never ever having any interaction with healthcare professionals? Really? Because that's most likely your lifespan dramatically shortened right there.

I’m not a doctor but it just looks like normal uterine wall lining that most people pass with their period, some people just pass bigger chunks than others. The pain is probably your uterus contracting to expel them - your hymen is much stretchier than that.

You could go to the GP to have them checked out if you wanted but I think they will probably just say the above.

Just to second the advice above, doctors really don't care about looking at pictures of, or even real life bits of flesh that you show them. They just want to make you better. A gynaecologist spends a considerable portion of their time looking at things that come out of women's vaginas. They just get used to it. There is absolutely no need to be embarassed in the slightest.

I used to pass clots and flood. I finally saw a gynaecologist who said no one should have to live like that and recommended a Mirena. It changed my life and I wish I had made more fuss earlier!

I had these every period. Fnarking painful as fnark.

OP, I totally understand why you're a bit embarrassed to see a GO but have you got a women's clinic, maybe attached to your local hospital? These will often deal with women's health and are much better than seeing your local GP. Please do a little research in your area, you do need to see a medical professional .

Clots in your menstrual blood, heavy periods, pain etc. Can be an indication of many things, endometriosis , PCOS, fibroids etc.

Pop onto the NHS.UK website and have a google for more info.

I had ridiculous heavy periods, similar to your description, and am limited as to what birth control I can take but the Mirena coil has been a miracle worker for me.

Be brace, please see a dr, a women's clinic whatever, but please do get seen, you don't have to continue living with the worry and pain.

Why are grown women grossed out by pictures of periods , grow up. I lose massive clots I can feel them coming down, I've had it for years

Don’t see why posters are so grossed out. OP wasn’t posting a picture of a dead baby or mutilated animal, just a blood clot. Plus it carried a TMI warning

Mine were like that when I was younger, they got less clotted as I aged. I’d only talk to your GP if it’s a very sudden change.

I'd just like to say that I've seen many doctors in the past few months because I have been in such severe pain for so long that I tried to end my life. I was given 5 courses of antibiotic without culturing being done hence these were the wrong antibiotic/not prescribed for the correct length of time and I know because of this improper care have a very very bad embedded infection which I am having to pay to be treated for on Harley Street by a Professor. Following this, I was told by 8 different doctors that I had Interstitial Cystitis which is an incurable chronic pain condition and again wanted to end my life. I also received treatment for the wrong condition which was excruciatingly painful. One of my experiences was so awful I had to complain which is not like me at all. In the summer of 2016 my grandmother who has acute intermittent porphyria was given drugs in Whitechapel Hospital which she explicitly told the doctors she could not have and they repeatedly said she had to take them despite this. She was horrendously ill and buckled. The next day she was in a coma. Her organs failed and we were told she would die. She pulled through but is now on dialysis most days. The NHS did this to her. People can tell me I am being stupid but I'd rather not give the NHS the opportunity to make me any worse as I'm already in constant pain, on very expensive long term antibiotic treatment and just want to get better.

I can't post the rest of the letter but you get the idea..

Endometrioses as a possible cause has been mentioned and as aformer sufferer myself, I urge you to get checked for it. In my case, the pain I experienced during menstruation was dismissed by various gynecologists (I am in Germany where you go to a gynecologist without a referral from a GP) until I went to one who told me that menstruational pain was not normal.
I had to undergo laparoscopy where it turned out that I had the worst stage of endometriosis. It returned a couple of years later and I had another laparoscopy. I then went off the pill and had a gynefix inserted (copper based) and so far, I am pain free.