What's classified as a 'heavy period'?

[cantthinkofaname2021]

For some background my periods were relatively 'normal' before my 2 pregnancies & breastfeeding
The last few years whilst feeding I've had a few ovarian cysts and much heavier, more painful periods (which seems to be the case after having children?!)
My cycles are about 35 days long at the moment so quite long, my actual periods are about 5-6 days with the first 2 days being extremely heavy and then tapering off very lightly over the final few days
Is this normal given my cycle is abit longer than normal and all the bleeding happens in the first few days?

I go through a maxi pad and a super tampon every hour for the first 2 days. But I agree with @goosed that sounds about right.

Can you buy a menstrual cup, most of them have volume markers on (or it will say on the manufacturers website), this will give you a more accurate idea of how heavy you are, and they have the advantage of holding more volume than even the most absorbant tampons.

To give an idea of my heaviest period. Mentrual cups hold 20-30mls. My menstrual cup was breeching after about an hour and half for a 24 hour period, plus medium and light flow the days either side. Things have fortunately calmed down since. So up to 400 mls of blood loss if the cup was filled completely when it started to leak. But definetly well over the 60-80ml threshold for a heavy period.