Anyone else have unpredictable flooding?

[Papergirl1968]

I'm 47 and my periods have been all over the place for about 18 months so assuming peri menopause. Although it seemed that last summer I had an almost continual, very heavy period, they have since become irregular and very light.
The last few days I've been having a tiny smear of brownish blood on the toilet paper when wiping, but not worth putting a sanitary towel or even panty liner on. However, early hours of this morning was woken by heavy flooding. Pyjama bottoms soaked in blood and passed a couple of clots. Put a towel on and went back to sleep but when I woke up this morning there had been no further blood loss, nor has there been today. This has happened a couple of times previously, with very heavy bleeding and clots but for only a very short time.
So I'm wondering why does my uterus have to empty its contents in about half an hour instead of over four days or so as it used to? Is it normal? Anyone else have the same?
I used to have really painful periods, but since becoming perimenopausal, they are generally pain free, even when heavy. A bit of pain when flooding and passing clots, but nothing compared to how they used to be which is something to be grateful for!

It's probably normal but might be worth just chatting to your GP to see if they want to arrange a scan. The flooding is common because what's happening is you are missing ovulation so the lining isn't coming away - it's building up (under oestrogen) but as there is no ovulation happening you aren't adding in the 2nd half of a cycle with progesterone. Without progesterone falling at the end of a cycle, there is no bleeding. But then when you do ovulate, or the lining sheds spontaneously when it's thick, you get a heavy bleed. Usually pain during periods is a result of ovulation (something to do with the corpus luteum - I think!) so that's also possibly why you aren't having pain now.

Maybe keep a diary of spotting /bleeds for 3 months then chat to your dr?

Thanks, polly Good idea, I will keep a note.
Really interesting explanation re the flooding and lack of pain. It's not as scary when you understand what's going on!