Personal question about heavy periods!

[Ziggyzoom]

If you experience very heavy periods, and in a position to measure your flow (cup users really, I guess) would you mind sharing.

I have just discovered I am anaemic and I have started to measure my flow. When I looked up what is considered 'normal' - 35-40ml - I was rather shocked.

I'm wondering how far from normal I actually am!

Thanks so much for this thread ziggy :) I wish I'd clicked that mine were that bad a bit sooner. I obviously knew I had heavy periods, and hated the fact that I have to sleep on folded bath towels and sometimes still manage to leak through, even when I get up a couple of times per night to change everything, but I really thought I was just at the heavy end of normal, not freakishly so, LOL!

Off to the GP again I guess. The daft thing is that I have the best GP ever, who already offered to refer me to a gynecologist, once, but I thought I'd be wasting their time because I didn't realise anything I was experiencing was that out of the ordinary.

I have massively heavy periods but can't measure. For me, on day 2 I can be soaking through a 10 hour night pad in 1-2 hours. i also turn the water red for the first few days and can feel myself expelling very large clots. I have also been diagnosed anaemic. I take the tablets for a few months and then stop, but after another few months need to restart. It is a real bind.

spinaroo you can join the (clearly not very) exclusive "Coke Can Gang"!

Mine can be terrible. I remember flooding a night time pad in the 5 seconds it took to get from the loo to my bedroom (I have fibroids), it was litres. My GP sent me into hospital the next day and I'd lost a heck of a lot. I take cerazette now and I rarely get any bleeding, it's bliss. When I do bleed I take zinc and magnesium supplements and it stops. Liquid iron works better then the pills and it's tolerated better too.

I had my Mirena out earlier this year and I'd forgotten how heavy and awful my periods were. They only last 5 days max but urgh, seriously Texas Chainsaw Massacre style. Another coke can here.

Coke can gang. Love it.
So is our team colour red?

PMSL at "Coke Can Gang"

And I just previewed my post and instead of I'd typed [grim]. Talk about an appropriate typo!

Threads like this make me thing wtf when I look back, in my early teens I was using both a tampon and a pad and had to change them both every hour on the first 3 days of my 7 day long period. I was also passing clots.

Eventually I went on the pill and then depo jabs, depo are the most wonderful thing in my life.

this was me for years...in May this year I had a polyp removed...my period are amazingly different...I don't pass huge clots anymore...don't flood and most amazingly gave lost the awful dragging pain I had for 5-7 days a month

I'm waiting to see a surgeon who will, without a doubt, try to talk me into having a hysterectomy. It seems to be the first option they throw at you when you have fibroids I have 2 which are on stalks, like mushrooms on the outside and one on the inside. I keep telling them 'no'.

The consultant I saw 5+ years ago was very clear about the fact that a hysterectomy was very much a last resort. Fingers crossed for you LadySybil

Thank you. I've seen 2 and both of them said this to start off with, they only mentioned the other options because I asked. I know it's pretty redundant unless you want children, but you wouldn't pull a tooth without doing everything to save it and it can't be wise to chop it out. My mum had hers removed and she's had 6 prolapse repairs since and her health has never been the same

ladysybil ask about endometrial ablation and the Mirena. No need for a hysterect, unless other things are tried first.

BTW from what I have read it's 80mls in total- not per day.

I change the cup every 1/2 an hour.

Mine were worse with mirena - I had 4 days of heavy periods so I had to wear black all the time just in case and had to take spare clothes with me when I left the house. I told the GP to take it out and now I am down to 1 day of heavy periods and have to change the cup between 1/2 an hour or an hour at first, taking nurofen increases that to a couple of hours.

I was losing loads of blood, flooding maternity pads hourly and became very anaemic. Went to the GP as I was feeling really weak and tired, didn't put 2 & 2 together just thought I was getting old!
Tried transexemic acid which cut flow in half, but then had a cervical polyp removed and was persuaded to try the mirena coil,
Well, after 6 months of spotting, I now, 2 years later have NO periods atall, I love my mirena

They won't be able to put a Minera in, they said The only think which helps the bleeding is the progesterone only pill, but I've looked online and there's research to say progesterone makes fibroids larger. I've tried changing my diet to try to reduce my hormone levels, less bread, more fish and veg. I've no idea if it's working or if they have stopped growing.

How do people cope overnight? I have to wear 2 super plus tampons and a night time towel.

I used to wake up a lot and change. When it was really bad I'd put a folded up bath towel on the bed and sleep on that as well. Cerazette saved me!

lady sorry but you've misread. Progesterone is what stops the lining building up- some women using HRT have the oestrogen part via pills, patches and gel and the progesterone part via the Mirena.

it's oestrogen that makes fibroids grow. I know this as I have a small fibroid and it's been monitored since on HRT but it hasn't grown at all.

I don't know why they said they can't use a Mirena in you- worst case they could do it under a GA- still better option than a major op.

Honeez, I am envious, I had it for 3 years and still had periods every month and they got heavier. Most people are luckier with mirena though.
At night I have a waterproof mattress cover and use black sheets when it's my period just in case, at least they don't look like the texan chain saw massacre happened if it starts at night.

Thank you, pink, there's so many sites and they all say different things I do feel a hell of a lot better whilst I've been taking these. I have more energy, I'm happier and I don't feel drained all the time. I know I was anaemic, but I haven't felt this good in years, way before the bleeding got worse. The ones on the outside are not causing the bleeding, it's the one on the inside. I need the two on the outside removing as they are painful and are pushing my intestines up so there's times I can't breathe. They can't embolise them as they can die and break off, causing an infection.

The Mirena was suggested to me, as after a DVT there are few other appropriate treatments. I was put off by reports of weight gain as I have enough trouble keeping the weight off as it is! Has anyone experienced this?

I have recorded over 300ml so far with another 2 (hopefully lighter) days to go. Nearly a Coke can!

Have you tried zinc and magnesium supplements?