What is a heavy period in your opinion?

[Claire2009]

Have the period from hell at the moment. Have had to change tampon/st every 30-45 mins today, has been hell as I've been out most of the day!!

Have endo & surprisingly not much pain this month but the period is heavier than usual!

floradix is a good iron supplement available from Holland & Barretts. Bizarrely my current period is heavier than they've been for a few months complete nightmare.

Thanks Cargirl.

Transexamic acid did nothing to help my periods. It did not lessen them one jot, not in months.

abraid what other options have they given you?

When my fibroids were at their worst I had such heavy blood loss one week (lasted 10 days, actually) that I seriously thought I might have to check myself in for a blood transfusion. You have my full sympathy.

Is endo a hormone-related condition, i.e. is it related to overproduction of certain hormones? If so you should consider adapting your diet to include more foods which will help your body to get rid of excess hormones. I know all this because of my extensive work into complementary ways to combat fibroids.

Points to remember are:

1. Your gut needs to be healthy so that excessive hormones in foods don't pass through 'holes' along the gut wall and enter the body directly. Drinking aloe vera juice first thing in the morning and 20 mins before you eat anything will help enormously. It heals the gut, basically.
2. Increase your intake of foods such as dark green leafy veg (or, for a powerful hit - wheatgrass or barley grass) are excellent here, as are mung beans (which can be cooked quickly and added to rice dishes). These foods will assist your liver in its job of processing unwanted extra stuff in your body.
3. If you choose to go down the wheat/ barleygrass route (and I highly recommend this for anyone with fibroids - my usual ovulation pain goes when I drink this stuff) you should know that the 'juice powder' is more expensive but a better product than the 'leaf powder'. I.e. 'Wheat grass juice powder' is about £15 for one month's supply. I notice the reduction in pain after less than a week of taking the stuff.
4. I now eat meat less often, but only buy organic meat (well, except for sausages!) because non-organic meat contains a much higher level of added hormones. Same goes for all meat products.
5. Beware of consuming food from plastic containers - particularly if you have heated or frozen your food in the container (includes water bottles left in the sunshine). The plastic leaches substances into the food which mimic hormones.

Good luck, whatever you do.

One of the best treatments are the Mirena coil, or endometrial ablation.

Heavy periods are "classed" as such if you use more than 1 towel or tampon every hour.

I am lucky enough not to have had heavy periods, but I can certainly "feel" the flow on standing up, so i don't think that is a good guide in itself.

See your GP and ask for a referral to a gynae if you need more help.

I have always been heavy & it has just become part of life! A healthy diet & zinc supplements have stopped any pain, but still wouldn't manage over 1 hour without a night-time thick towel in the first 2-3 days.
Do heavy people really get away with wearing tampons? Even later in my period, a tampon would never ever last me more than half an hour!
Am I abnormal?

Tranexamic (sp) Acid gave me terrible stomache pains, which isn't unusal apparently. If you really don't want any more children I'd go for the womb ablation, I went from wearing 2 night time pads at once to only needing a liner. I only have a tiny bit of spotting now,

It really has changed my life.

I have to say I found a mooncup much better than tampax. The mirena coil was good when I had it but I did bleed lightly for the 1st 6 months, I had it out a year ago.

have to correct 'purple one'. Tranexamic acid is not the same as lofepramine. it's trade names are Cyklokapron or Transamin.

Lofepramine is an antidepressant. trade name Gamanil.

different drugs, not sure how you've got the idea they're the same PO. Cass

howtotell: Heavy periods are "classed" as such if you use more than 1 towel or tampon every hour" - where does that classification come from? I'll bet it was thought up by a man.

Having to change SuperPlusExtra non-applicator tampons once an hour is definitely heavy bleeding, IMO.

floradix or something called ferroglobin B12 v good (which I took as they had run out of stock of floradix and I can actually feel the difference to my energy levels!)

I tried the mooncup once with heavy periods. All I can say is Texas Chainsaw Massacre and I'll say no more.

You should go to the GP. I was horribly anaemic from it and still am to a certain extent.

at foxinsocks' Texan periods! Surely a stetson would be better than a mooncup?

more like every 15 minutes MrsMerryHenry!

Why do mooncups make lighter periods?

and double- to bodiddly

The things our bodies do to us in the name of reproduction. It's a wonder we women aren't all dead already.

I really sympathise with you Claire 2009 and everyone here who suffers with heavy periods

I'm still ttc (although I'm probably too old now) and so have decided to put up with them for the moment. But I can't go on much longer.

They rule my life: it makes planning anything really difficult and I am a prisoner in my own bathroom for 2 days a month. I always get hideous pain and nausea and sometimes even vomiting followed by a migraine. Oh the joys ...

The good side is that they are getting shorter though ..

The thing that makes me sad though is that even though I live abroad where the health care is second to none, not many doctors or gynaecologists seem to find menstruation problems (a) very interesting or (b) particularly worthy of treatment

... you have to be on your knees with pain or leaving a trail of blood across their office before they will take the subject seriously ...

MrsMH- that quote comes from several sources written by gyanes. I have read it several times over the years- and the gynaes could be women! why are you so sceptical-seems a reasonable idea to me!

The only real way to find out if you are having periods is to have the flow measures- they do this by asking you to provide used tampons/towels.- Unless you are happy to go along with the definition Igave preivously.
The reason for this is that "heavy" can be subjective- don't pounce on me- I am the messenger not the dr! Some women change their pads or tampons more than others as they don't like the idea of being "unclean"- drs have found that some women change very half an hour, dnd say they are "heavy" whereas others might be happy to go for 2 hrs withthe same amount of blood. PLEASE don't jump on me- this is what I have read. We are obvously not talking super super tampons or pads that are obviously soaked in a short time.

I have just found that my mooncup copes better with heavy bleeding than tampax, the tampax would sort of get flushed out with the flow without having absorbed much - or perhaps they were just saturated!

I wonder if they will consider ablation if tran acid does the job and you don't want more children or would they just laugh me out of the office?

howtotell - I'm only sceptical because IME their definition of 'heavy' is too mild! If you have to use a tampon as big as a duvet in order to avoid changing every hour, IMO that's heavy!

FWIW in my experience most gynaes are male. I've always been about that trend!

Sorry, CarGirl--not ignoring you! Just got busy.

I haven't been back yet. I think I'm getting close to asking for something surgical, cervical ablation: is that what I mean?

endometrial ablation, even.

Anyone else done any experiments with amount to drink v pain? I think I've come to the conclusion that drinking lots before I start then not so much once I'm on really helps! It would be interesting to hear others experience- does increasing fluid levels help?