Are my periods normal?!

[36and3]

Background, I’m 36 and my periods have got heavier after each of my three kids. I’ve not been on hormonal contraceptives for ten years.

Anyway, my cycles are short but regular 24/25 days and last 4/5 days. So far, so normal. But on day 2, for a few hours I flood an orange tampax every hour and basically shed 70% of my period in a few hours. Then the rest of the time it’s light. Everything online says flooding hourly is too heavy.

So I mentioned this to my friend and she said it’s normal.

Would this be a total waste of a GP’s time? I take multivitamins containing iron and last blood tests didn’t reveal any anaemia.

I don’t know if it’s normal but have you changed contraceptive? For me when I changed contraceptive it became so so heavy - like you are describing and very painful. It took my body over 6 months to adjust and has reduced but not back to where it was if that makes sense

I haven’t been on any contraception for ten years. So maybe I’m peri?!

This happens to me and has been like this for the last few years, also no contraception. I am 39, and have had blood tests, only revealing low iron, but no hormonal signs of peri. I started with a heavy day two, recently increased to heavy day two and three and this cycle day four was heavy too. Lots of clotting. I have a large fibroid, and have had a hysteroscopy to see what's possible and I do have a referral with the gynaecologist for an ablation...long process all of this, but your GP should take you seriously. My GP was very understanding of how this negatively impacts my life

Mine is similar. I’m 38 and 18m pp (and breastfeeding). Light on days 1-2, then heavy like it’s all coming at once and then tails off quickly. I put it down to my hormones still being a bit askew and it’s probably ok for me. I don’t think it’s a waste of GP time for you to go, you’ve noticed a change and you’re unsure what it means.

Could be a fibroid?

It's usually only if you are going through a pad or tampon more than every hour that it's an issue, rather than once an hour itself being a red flag.

However, have you had your thyroid and vitamin levels checked? The only time I had periods quite that heavy was when I was very severely hypothyroid with b12, iron, vitamin d and folic acid level through the floor. I had a TSH in the 60s.

I'm back to lighter more consistent periods now I'm better medicated.