My bloodbath period

[metrobonk]

I'm 42. I have three DC. Every month when my period comes it consists of:

• 48 hours of not being able to leave the house due to heavy bleeding, clots, flooding, pain and being doubled over unable to straighten.
• I cannot contain my bleeding during this time with period pants, tampons or a maxi pad. Even if I bunch up mounds of absorbent tissue or kitchen roll it often floods through that. Many times I have just resorted to holding towels between my legs and throwing them away once covered in blood.
• During the night I have to set my alarm to wake up every 2 hours so that I can go from lying down to standing up and run to the bathroom, sit on the toilet and empty the flooding blood into the toilet because if I leave it longer the built up blood floods on to the carpet, over the bedclothes etc.
• I get pain and nausea until I pass clots that are around the size and length of my thumb. It usually starts by feeling sick and thinking I'm going to have diarrhoea and sitting on the toilet and then passing a clot and the nausea and pain going away
• One of my DC who shares a bedroom and bathroom with me has to get up for school in the morning on these days and goes to the loo following a trail of blood and usually a bathroom floor covered with blood. As I often don't make it to the toilet on time so it leaks on my hands and over the taps and flush. I try to clean it up during the night after each episode but often I am just so exhausted I don't get it all, or wiping it spreads it further more thinly, so everything gets a red sheen and there are visible smaller clots everywhere.
• Mentally I go into an abyss of pretty constant crying and depression. I am on SNRIs which have helped a lot of the more extreme emotions, but I still feel like an alien has taken over my body. I fall out with everyone, I ruin relationships and friendships and work for 48 hours.
• I have never had a pair of (non lingerie) pants more than one month because no matter how much care I take they are always soiled beyond repair.
• Uncontrollable eating. I am on a GLP-1 and day to day when not menstruating I am really regulating myself well, eating healthily and not binging, but during my period it's like the effects of the GLP-1 wear off.

I have told my gynaecologist and GP about this. I haven't had time necessarily to give all the graphic detail like they above, but people respond to me as if I am vastly exaggerating. I've had scans where they have discovered polyps (not big enough to do anything about yet) and I also have the beginnings of adenomyosis which they also said was very common for peri-menopausal women. Most people tell me I just need to get a Mirena coil fitted and all this will go away. My questions for you:

• Does or did anybody else have the kind of experience I describe above on their period?
• What else can I do at this point?
• Is the mirena coil a cure-all for all of this?

Yes I've had this - I had Novasure endometrial ablation (NovaSure-Endometrial-Ablation-Gynae-ML6129.pdf) and a mirena coil fitted and it was the best thing I've ever done!
I haven't had a period since 2018 and it saw me through a very easy menopause as well - totally lifechanging and highly recommended!

My bleeding wasn’t as bad as yours so this might not work. I also didn’t want the coil. I started on oral contraceptives and gp suggested I go 2 pack at a time to only have periods every 2nd month. It has really reduced the bleeding so I am now back to normal. Check your iron and ferritin also. With so much blood loss you’re probably anaemic and not just a little bit.

Mirena coil has fixed my insane periods. Like you, I used to avoid leaving the house. For me it has been life changing.

I've had a mirena coil since 2013 (on my third). Had severe endometriosis and awful periods. The coil has completely stopped them, and like a pp it is seeing me through menopause.

Edited for auto correct typo.

I fit Mirena coils and I think there's a good chance it would help you - I'm always slightly sad when women come to see me six months after having a Mirena fitted to tell me that it's changed their life and they wish they'd done it sooner... We do many fewer hysterectomies in the UK now than we did when I was training, and it's almost all due to these amazing coils (no, I don't work for Bayer, and neither do I get paid extra for any coils that I fit). Surgical ablation can also be helpful but depending on your age can need repeat treatments after a couple of years and so they'd recommend a Mirena first (or sometimes fit a Mirena after ablation as PPs have said - has gynae talked to you about that at all?).

Mirena (or one of the other same-strength hormone coils) is the recommended first-line treatment for heavy menstrual bleeding in the UK, regardless of the cause. It can take some time to settle in, but really, it can be life-changing. One of the best things I do as a GP.

@Galvanized age alone doesn't necessarily mean that your daughter can't have a mirena fitted either, if you think she would manage it. I've fitted them in 15yos several times. If younger than that the other hormone coils - kyleena or jaydess - may be worth a discussion. Although they aren't designed to reduce heavy flow they often do, and they're smaller devices than the Mirena so sometimes easier in younger girls.

You could try Slynd which is a progesterone only pill and should stop your periods. It can also be used with Estrogel as part of HRT.

Mine are similar - blood pouring out when you're on the loo etc (so having a period like men think you do 🙄) but probably not as bad as yours.

My GP was very quick to act with mine sending for scans but couldn't find anything causing it. Mine got heavier after my first child but still well within the realms of normal, and then after my second went wild. I do have a coil in though which has been suggested as part of the problem.

I got prescribed Trans-xxx- Acid which I haven't tried yet as oddly enough my period once I'd got the prescription was ok.

Mine are not remotely painful though which seems bizarre given how heavy they are? Anyone else had that?

This is what I did back in the 1970s. There was no mini pill then. I took the contraceptive pill end to end for years. I stopped in my early 40s to see what would happen. Nothing happened. I never had another period. I had decided to be child free at an early point in my life so the fact that I was no longer fertile was a blessing. Nor did I ever have a recognisable menopause. It was just like my bodyclock had stopped in my early 40s.

Try the coil and if not push for a hysterectomy
This isn’t a life for you OP. You must feel so ill.

This is horrific. Have you thought of taking photos and showing them to the doctor?
Photos of the blood on the floor and in the sink, photo of the towels covered in blood, photos of blood clots?
And then eg I usually need X towels per period, I pass X blood clots that size every day

My periods were heavy due to fibroids. GP made me try a different pill but that gave me headaches, then I had to try a Mirena coil but it didn’t stay in place so then I was offered an endometrial ablation which was amazing & has changed my life. It’s an operation done under general aesthetic where they laser the lining of your womb away (obviously you have to make sure you don’t want any more DC) and I’ve not had any bleeding at all since.
I took pictures of my bleeding / clots to show the GP how bad it was. Keep pushing them to do something because you absolutely do not have to put up with this but you have to advocate for yourself for as long as it takes.

As PP have said, do make sure GP tests your ferritin levels. You're likely to be anaemic. I think there's some weird circular thing where heavy bleeding causes anaemia and anaemia causes heavier periods. Not sure if that's true but I have read it in a few places. Either way, it's definitely worth getting iron tested.

Getting the coil fitted would definitely be the first and easiest thing to try, whilst exploring other options. I’ve always had terrible periods, which then got so bad, like you describe, just before menopause.

The only thing that ever worked for me was the mirena coil. I don't have it now and I'm slowly going back to how it was before hand and it's horrible.

Pre kids mine were bad not as bad as yours OP but pretty bad no GP was ever interested - the solution was always the pill and the poor reactions I had were imagined and break though bleeing shrugged at.

I got lucky post kids they were much better only getting bad now very late 40s.
Dmum had awful time and for her it was fibroids and menopause the bleeding was uncontrollable and she ended up with a hysterectomy.

I think mirena coil is the first thing they want to try - I think it works for most women. Personally I'm not keen but if it gets worse will have to think about trying

It will be worth checking iron levels as I believe low iron levels can hinder your body’s ability to properly constrict blood vessels in the uterus, potentially leading to a heavier, longer flow.

I have had a mirena coil inserted 4 months ago for these exact reasons. My period improved very slightly although not much, and since fitting have had spotting almost every day. Then 2 weeks ago (a week after my last period finished) I started bleeding very heavily with lots of clots and still am now. Have never had heavy bleeding between periods other than this instance, and I don't know what's going on. Dr has prescribed tranexamic acid which isn't really helping and also requested ultrasound but that's another 3 weeks away. Feeling really scared and not sure what's happening. So I can't really recommend the mirena from my own experience I'm afraid, but seems like lots of other people have good experience with it.

Are you sure the mirena hasn't come out?

The GP checked yesterday and it's still in but she thought the threads might be longer than they should be, apparently. So maybe it's moved? Meanwhile continuing to bleed heavily and not looking forward to the next 3 weeks if it doesn't stop!

My periods were like this.

A combination of tranexamic acid, and the progesterone only pill sorted it. I cant have the coil (my body rejects foreign objects, the coil, earrings, even the pin I had in a bone as a teen).

I also had horribly low serum ferritin and iron levels, which is solved with iron transfusion and Spatone liquid iron supplements.

Mine were horribly heavy but with almost no pain too.

In fact, I had worse pain when I had "normal" periods in my 20s and 30s.

When they were at their heaviest I ached all over, I was exhausted, but no real cramping. I was diagnosed with adenomiosis, the doc said that the lack of pain was pure luck.

Same here! Very similar issues and then I had the mirena coil fitted and it's changed my life. I read quite a lot of negative information about the mirena coil but was just completely desperate so got it anyway. The first month wasn't great at all but since then it's been a thousand times better and the old issues are largely gone.

Could have written your post. 35 with 2DC. Point blank refuse to have the coil for various reasons. Transxemic acid has made it far more manageable. I can at least leave the house to do the school run. I have begged for a hysterectomy....

Oh yes, and take iron. Even if you dont think you need it. I have tablets and spatone fluid supplements. I was/am so anaemic I couldn't move for exhaustion

Me.
Research Zoladex injections.
I tried a coil but the clots I had were so huge they pulled it out . Twice, Two different coils,
Happy to answer any questions

GET IRON!

Hopefully an ultrasound will show if its moved. It doesn't work for everyone but fingers crossed it does for you and the next few weeks are bearable.