To ask, how do you handle your period at night?

[IconicKitty]

I used to be so blessed. I would change tampon at about 10:30, sleep until 6:30 and change. There would rarely be a leak at night.

Since I entered my 30s, I bleed heavier at night, and I also find I need more sleep when I'm bleeding. I want to sleep at around 9-9:30. But I wake up at 1am ish leaking. So it seems I can't leave protection for more than 3 hours, even at night time. I'm knackered in the morning as I can't get back to sleep easily.

I hate sanitary towels, I wake up in the night and have to change those due to the heavy bleeding and also have the additional mess to clean up too.

Am I resigned to getting up every 3-4 hours on my heaviest days? Do other women do this, is this just an accepted part of life if you have heavy periods? I don't know how it's possible to sleep through the night without changing now. It makes me dread those days even more so.

And I wish I’d had a Mirena coil fitted years ago.

I got so sick of rustling around sweaty in pads at night and worrying about leaking I broke and bought the Modibodi overnight knickers and they’ve been a game changer. The padding goes right up the back and I’d happily wear white jeans while bouncing on a trampoline smiling manically in them.

Can you post a link please? Their website bamboozles me.

Mooncup plus heavy duty period pants

Moon cup for me

I've found extra large puppy training pads to be quite good for putting on the bed (got the idea after waking up from my hysteroscopy on something similar)

I've found them really good, but I am so heavy that I wouldn't just bleed into them so use a reusable pad as well - between the two I have managed to avoid blood running down my legs in the middle of the office (which has happened on more than one occasion thanks to fibroid flooding)

@Ketchupwee
cant believe I didn’t think of this - not puppy pads but the bedtime mats that I have a pack of after DS stopped setting the bed - bonus is they don’t smell like puppy pads do!

Ibuprofen helps to lessen the flow. You could take a couple the first couple of days at night.

But really tampon and sanitary towel is all you can do.

Heavy flow towel, two pairs of knicks

Sometimes have to get up and change pads which really annoys me

Having said that... I still get nights when I accidentally sleep on my back the blood trickles down my bum crack, missing the pad completely, and ending up round my waist, so blood bath of pjamas and bottom sheet.

^

Oh god yes me too, the delightful trickle down the bum, waking me up

Argh

Ultra tampon plus a reusable pad for heavy flow that is ridiculously long and wide in the back. If I’m lucky only have to change once in the night the first two nights.

Lots of love for modibody on here, might look into them

I always sleep on my side, not my back. Ibuprofen helps ease uterine contractions and lessen the flow. Raspberry leaf supplement has also helped to lighten it up a bit whenever it gets too heavy.

But really the bottom line is that we’re designed for it to flow out of us. We can plug it up with a tampon for convenience but eventually it must out. I always find that if I wear tampons all day long then it tends to be worse at night. If I switch to a pad after work and move around a bit to, er, release the flow it helps a lot. And if I minimize my tampon use as much as possible and just let ‘er rip with pads it is several days shorter than when I use tampons, plus I have very little flow at night. I tend to pick my poison depending on what I have going on.

I always think this about womens' health. But actually I was reading an article at the weekend about prostrate cancer tests and decided I'd rather have a smear test :)

However, I do think if men had periods there would be more in place to help.

I think if women went to the GP every time their periods changed they'd never be away. I think it's hard for some women to understand when they have 3 day periods and never leak, but for most of us it's entirely normal to have heavy to very heavy to ridiculously heavy periods and for the pattern and flow level to alter.

But really the bottom line is that we’re designed for it to flow out of us. We can plug it up with a tampon for convenience but eventually it must out. I always find that if I wear tampons all day long then it tends to be worse at night. If I switch to a pad after work and move around a bit to, er, release the flow it helps a lot. And if I minimize my tampon use as much as possible and just let ‘er rip with pads it is several days shorter than when I use tampons, plus I have very little flow at night. I tend to pick my poison depending on what I have going on

I reckon there's a lot of truth in this statement. Last month I was short of tampons and couldn't get to the shops, so saved them for nights only, using pads and changing very frequently during the day. That first night, which is normally horrendous, was actually not bad at all the I didn't even leak a little bit. My period was two days shorter overall too.

I think you might be making assumptions about what my period is like...

Yes - some women have very heavy periods and leak or flood often. Some women have a mix. Some women are irregular while other suffer terrible pms/pmdd and others don't.

But significant or unusual-for-the-individual changes in periods always need investigating to rule out problems and there exists among many people- even doctors - a belief that all this is normal and women just have to live with it.

There might be absolutely nothing wrong with the op, but it shouldn't be dismissed just because some women experience very heavy flows.