spotting for a week before period

[susan198130]

I'm 36 and we are currently trying for our third child. When I say trying, we're much more "not preventing", as opposed to actively trying. I've been off the pill for well over a year now.

My cycles used to always be 28 days, give or take a day. The month before last, my cycle was 21 days, last month, it was 27 days but I was spotting for about 6 days before my actual period arrived. This month, I started spotting from day 17. There's obviously a chance I could be pregnant, but falling pregnant for me doesn't happen very easily so I'm pretty sure it's not that.

Has anyone else had this? I'm up to date with my smear tests, I'm not on any medication. I may go to the doctors, but I do recall having months like this when I was trying for my first child, and it just ended up correcting itself in the end.

I’ve had this for a few months now. Mine is like a mini period a week or so before my actual period.

It started after I’d been off any contraception for about 6 months.

I think you should consider this a fertility issue to be honest. It's possible you are having an early menopause; erratic cycles are the first sign. I had a friend who started this at 37 and just managed to conceive her 2nd DC in time. Erratic cycles are often due to irregular timing of ovulation or low progesterone - it's loss of or lack of progesterone that causes bleeding. It depends how much you want another child whether you seek help. With 2 DCs already you won't get any help on the NHS but a private fertility clinic or fertility gynae might help by doing blood tests etc and giving advice.

No, we're not particularly fussed whether we have another child. We'd obviously like one, but we have 2 children already, so it was just a case of let's see what happens. I certainly wouldn't go through any fertility treatments again. Saying that, I think the problem laid more with my husband's side than me. Out of all the tests we had back then, which was a long time ago, they couldn't find anything wrong with me, but he had a slightly lower than normal sperm count. So it took us over 3 years to fall pregnant with our first child, but then just a month for our second.

I do take my temperature and I ovulate. I have considered whether it could be to do with the menopause, but maybe naively, I've always thought you generally go through the menopause around the same time as your mum, and my mum didn't go through it until she was in her mid-50s.

Mine is exactly like a mini period. Some months, I only get a couple of days of spotting, and then my period will be quite heavy (which is what I've always been like). So heavy for a couple of days, and then just tapers off. But whenever I have the spotting for a while before my period, my period is always lighter.

Where I have tracked my periods for years now, I know that I've been through this spotting before. I didn't bother going to the doctors then because I was going through all these fertility tests anyway, so figured if there was anything wrong, they'd pick it up. Again, this was maybe 10 years ago now.

I have just recently started to experience spotting before my period always around day 10 of my cycle and the first couple of times it happened, it was very slight spotting, no need to use a tampon or anything and it just stopped after a day. This month it started and stuck around for about 3 days and it was a little heavier. Then it stopped and then my period arrived but 2 days late. I have an appointment for an ultrasound but I can't help think its something serious :-( I suffer quite badly with anxiety as well so trying to tell my brain that it could just be hormones is not easy. My GP doesn't seem worried and my recent smear came back clear. It's just worrying that i have suddenly started to spot before my period :-( Any advise would be much appreciated.

Are you on birth control? Through my years of trying for a baby, I know a lot about cycles, although I don't know why I'm spotting, but if you're not on the pill or any birth control, CD10 spotting, could it be ovulation spotting? I used to get that.

Spotting in the lead up to your period is completely normal though. Mine usually starts off brown and then pink and then my period arrives. I'm sure everything's fine but if you're worried like you say you are, then maybe go back to your GP.

Hi, No i'm not on any birth control. And it's new for me to spot between my periods as it's never happened before just recently on my last 3 cycles. I went to the doctors about it after the 2nd month and saw the nurse who said to monitor it and come back if it continues, which it did. So I then went to see my GP about 2 weeks ago and he seems to think it is hormonal but said he would send me for an ultrasound :-( this is then making me think something is wrong, even though he said he's not worried and 99.9% sure it will come back clear.

Even if there is something wrong, it's probably unlikely to be something serious. It could be a cyst or fibroids or a polyp, or it could be hormonal. I know easier said than done, but try not to worry. It really probably is nothing at all, and as I said, it could be ovulation bleeding. I sometimes get that in the middle of my cycle with cramps as well, which is completely normal.

Thanks. I'm trying not to think about it for the time being. The doctor did show me some charts of the hormones during our cycles and he thinks mine are dropping to low levels hence the spotting, but I would have thought that he would want to check my bloods to see what my hormone levels are like, rather than send for a scan. I'm just keeping fingers crossed it's nothing sinister. Thanks for listening.

I've always had this too. In fact every time I've been pregnant it's been one of the first signs, the spotting starts as normal and then stops.

Hi 👋🏻 well I know I’m not pregnant as Mother Nature arrived on Tuesday, 3 days late but stil it arrived. I’m just hoping it’s hormone related.

So mother nature turned up on Monday (3 days late) and since then my period has been stop start stop start. Yesterday it was extremely light, and then all of sudden it started up again. Then a few hours later stopped. I wore a pad for bed so i could judge what was happening, and this morning nothing, then about an hour later it starts again, and now it's stopped again, but there is still a small amount of bright pink/red blood when i wipe. I am really freaking myself out about what this could be or why this could be happening, i keep reading awful stories on line and i am now petrified of going for my ultrasound. :-(

Googling anything is always going to give you the worst case scenario. I'm a real worrier and since having children, I get so anxious about my health. If I get a sick bug, but I don't know anyone that's had it, I'm convinced I've got stomach cancer, when it's just a sick bug.

The other week, I had a really stiff neck for about 4 days. According to Google, I had spine cancer but it was just a stiff neck.

Maybe the fact that you're feeling so anxious about it is making it worse? I don't know, but sometimes stress and anxiety can have an effect your body. Hopefully your ultrasound will shed some light.

Thought I would give an update... so I went for my ultrasound and they found a endometrial polyp. I ended up having a huge panic attack as I have read so many horror stories on the net about these being cancer :-( my results were sent to my GP the same day (i think this is partly due to the panic attack i had minutes before my scan) i then visited my GP the next day and they confirmed what the hospital had said, and said they would refer me to gynae. This wasn't on a two week referral and my GP did inform me that it was nothing to get anxious about, but that because of the bleeding that I keep getting it's best for me to go and see them. I went back to my GP today (not as stressed out and hysterical) and i asked her what Gynae are likely to do whilst I'm there (forgot to say my appointment is on the 18th October) And this is where the panic has now set in again.... She said that they don't usually refer women of my age (37) who have polyps but because of the bleeding that I am having, it is best to get it checked, i did ask her if my scan showed any sign of the C word and she said no, but they can't rule it out!! :-( She said Gynae may do nothing or they may say that they want to scan me again in 6months to see if there has been any changes to it :-( I am now petrified that it's serious, and every blooming website i look at mentions the C word!! Anyone else ever been diagnosed with one of these??

I had this. Spotting for a week before my period started proper. My periods were very heavy too.

Went for a scan, I had polypoid thickening. They did a small op, i can't remember the technical term, to take it away. It was benign and nothing to worry about.

I was told uterine cancer was very rare in young women and at 46 I was considered young. Felt a bit flattered at that

Spotting excessively before your period can be a sign of low Progesterone

You could request 7dpo bloods to check your Progesterone levels and if you're concerned it could be peri-menopause you could also ask for CD3 FSH, LH & Estrogen bloods

Hi,

Thanks for your replies :0) I have maybe 1 or 2 days worth of spotting around 6-10 days after my period, it always seems to be around when I am ovulating that I get the spotting, nothing heavy. And my periods are around 3-5 days long where i stop completely for one day and then it starts again, i get the odd stomach cramp but nothing that i can't bear. The radiographer said it looks like a small polyp on the endometrium wall, but didn't say what size it is. I am suffering badly with health anxiety, and can't help think that it's something that the doctors aren't telling me even though my other half keeps telling me doctors aren't allowed to do that, I just cant stop thinking about it after the GP said they don't usually refer women of my age to Gynae :-( I think they may possibly do bloods if it's not the polyp that is causing the bleeding.

I'm just updating, in case anyone else has this problem, not that I have any answers yet. I had an internal scan. I'm still waiting for the results officially from my doctor, but the sonographer said that she couldn't see anything to worry about.

I've had a FSH blood test (my doctor requested that to be a full blood count as well), I'm not approaching menopause according to that. All it came back with was that I was a tiny bit low in folate, so they've prescribed me with 5mg of folic acid. I had the CD21 blood test on Friday (which was actually on CD17 because I ovulated on CD10). So I'll see what that brings back.

I've had a 20 day cycle this month. It's getting on my nerves. I'd really like to have another baby, but with cycles like this, I'm not sure that's ever going to happen. I'm kind of hoping the CD21 blood test does show low progesterone, so at least I have a reason for the short cycles and spotting.

I know it's an old post but on the off chance it helps anyone, I was spotting from about day 21 of my cycle. Went to the GP, ended up getting a private ultra sound and hysterectomy to check for polyps. Was advised it was my progesterone hormone levels dropping too soo , and the only thing I could do was take the pill if I didn't want the spotting.
After lots of googling and doing my own research I found the one thing that helps massively is having organic milk. On a cycle when I only have organic milk I might get 2 days of spotting, if I have normal milk I get at least 7 days.