Is it rough to leave period stairned sheets?

[MoonBaby1]

I sleep with my 2ur old and my dh sleeps in a separate room for now I have heavy periods which means despite wearing maxi pads and tampons combined I’ll always have a heavy night. I leave changing the sheets till my period has finished. Is this skany or ok?

Maybe dark towels? I be afraid that smell in warm weather. I got coil in due to heavy blood loss has been great. No periods now

Can you try a moon cup? Holds more than a tampon and fine to leave in longer. You can get pills from GP to make periods lighter, nothing to do with contraceptive. I've just been prescribed them

Poor you - I have had the problem since being a student (in the 90s) black poly bags in those days. Then towels, water proof trousers...... now only wear black & have dark sheets! Still would probably change as hate it staining the bed. Now with tena lady pads etc much better (& the coil, injections, drugs...(

Haha how is it a health hazard?!!!

Ask your GP about Tranexamic and Mefanamic Acid. Take the tablets during your period to lessen the flow. They might not be suitable for you, or they might not help, but I found that they really helped me. There is also Norethisterone (?), which you take when you are not on.

I really think that you should go back to your GP with this, please don’t get fobbed off. The only thing that worked for me was the Mirena.

@Moonbaby1 any chance you're iron deficient? It can play havoc with your periods.

Fwiw mine are bad like yours, I have to use a tampon, extra long night time sanitary towel and period knickers (the absorbent kind) as well as putting a thick bath towel down to lay on, oh and set my alarm on my watch to wake me every 2 hours to go to the loo for the first 3 days of my cycle.

If it was just a drop then I think that's kind of fair enough to leave it but as you describe a 12" square patch, no I'm sorry I think that's grim and the sheets needs changing immediately. It's not particularly great for your 2yr old to be sleeping in amongst blood stains and you're kidding yourself if you think it doesn't smell.

Greatest sympathy for you OP. I can't imagine you have the energy to change the sheet everyday especially as you are still feeding.
I dont think leaving it is a massive issue as long as it's not a symptom of some form of depression that you may need help with.
I sleep on a towel and in my pjs but always wake up soaked. I hate having heavy periods. It's not a health hazard for your child. Just do what you feel comfortable with and have energy for. Be kind to yourself. I have cleaned in private homes for 28 years and there are a lot worse things than period stains going on in homes. People incapable of flushing their toilet for starters.x

I completely understand where the OP is coming from. I suffer from heavy periods (awaiting investigation) :don't underestimate the stress and loss of sleep. Whatever I do, it leaks. If it happens, unless it's really like the dead horse's head scene in the Godfather, I'll leave it, because it'll be exactly the same thing in a few hours' time. That said, I sleep alone. I have a DH and DS, and if either of them were there, despite the hassle, I'd have to change it out of shame. I am not ashamed, and I think it says alot about how society can make women feel about natural functions (and DS is too young to understand, and as some other posters have pointed out, may associate blood with bad injury). Basically OP I really sympathise, it's awful and you need to do what you need to do to get you through it. And for what it's worth, if I lie on a towel it always ends up by my feet or on the floor by the morning!

Period pants and Always Infinity Nghttime have saved my sheets but I'm not as heavy as you.

Wow. I had no idea period's could be so heavy. Mine last like 5 hours, with spotting either side. But I've been trying for a child for 5 years with no success, so, swings and roundabouts.
What do women in indigenous societies do? Or in the olden days?

I have heavy periods too and only recently started wearing period pants. Skin hugging gym shorts work too! I used to always stain my bed. Had to throw away sheets, even with bed mats. Right bloody mess.

Grim

Mooncup and period pants?

Skanky IMO..i just couldn't.
I used to have the most horrendous periods. Would leak through a tampon plus two pads within half an hour. I ended up having an ablation. Best thing ever. No more periods.

It is a bit grim OP but I completely understand where you're coming from. Not exactly your fault you have horrible heavy periods! It's a bit of a rubbish situation because you can't be expected to change sheets every day for a week! Could you not sleep on a towel or something?

If I changed my bottom sheet every time I had leaked in the night, I'd be changing it up to 7 times. Sod that. I have enough bed sheet changing with my son and his trying to be dry at night.

@exaltedwombat you are right.

The 2 yo isn't even going to see it, let alone lie in it. His feet most likely reach down only as far as the OP's belly button. And he is most likely sleeping in his own pee, with maybe a poo thrown in in the morning.

Would you not change sheets after a night sweat or big nose bleed?

Once offs are a lot easier to deal with than facing the chore up to seven mornings in a row. It's more than half an hour of physical labour every single day, between stripping the bed, lugging everything to the washing machine, putting it all out to dry, taking it back in again, replacing it all on the bed.

This woman is up in the night with a breastfeeding toddler and is most likely anemic and therefore exhausted. And she has the same toddler to run around after all day.

Bloody sheets are the least of her problems, in all seriousness.

Once offs are a lot easier to deal with than facing the chore up to seven mornings in a row.

Not really, I remember for sometime after having both dc having regular major night sweats and changing my sheets each morning having been up with a newborn and second time a toddler too. However lots of solutions have been suggested and probably full sheet changes aren't necessary in this case unlike when your sheets and covers are soaked. It takes a couple of minutes to pull a sheet off and stick another on though and a sheet alone takes up little space in a machine. Collecting a few inside a wash bag and washing together is surely more pleasant than you and a dc lying in it for a week

It's still not seven mornings in a row month after month while probably anemic after two years of broken sleep while breastfeeding.

Period stains do smell. Not bad, but do smell like blood.
Can't your gyn help? This sounds like too much!

It doesn't sit right with me, and I don't know why really.
Taking care of my personal space makes me feel uplifted, and something I try to do no matter how tired or ill I am.
Theer is no health reasons to brush hair or even wash it regularly, but doing things like that make me feel cared for, a little nurtured.
If I have a cold and staying in all day I still make an effort to have a shower, put on clean comfy clothes. It gives me a little lift, the same way I may pick mysef a few flowers from the garden and stick them in a little vase in the window ledge.

No one wil be harmed by bloody bedsheets, and I don't judge others, but for me I would change them. I would know the patch is there, would feel the roughened surface, it would feel unpeasant.
Plus stains are easier ro remove the quicker they are dealt with.
If I notice dried menstrual blood on my pants half way through the day I would change them too.

A mooncup will enable you to measure the flow. Ie if you changed it four times a day and full that may be 100ml loss, something others don’t do in a whole period. I expect your options are tough at the moment with young ones & trying to keep all the balls in the air. I expect your gp will have a chat over phone if you wanted. If the blood loss is excessive and you have finished having children and all other options tried & exhausted an endometrial ablation can be a great option. It’s about your future, when you want to go on holidays etc and not deal with this tricky issue. Good luck

Hi @MoonBaby1 firstly I can both sympathize and empathize with you, heavy periods, especially for no apparent reason are the worst.
Getting off the subject of bed sheets, I have a couple of questions/suggestions.
Firstly, have you considered using a moon cup? I'd never heard of them before joining MN but have a search on here, there's a really good guide on them.
Secondly, could you change your contraception method so it stops or lightens your flow? I know that may be difficult in the present climate with GP surgeries only seeing patients in the most urgent cases, in some areas.
Good luck, I hope you can find a way to sort it, even a little, soon