Heavy Menstrual Bleeding
Do you have any vaginal bleeding lately?
Do you suffer from bleeding between periods?
Do you have irregular periods?
In our article below, we will talk; about a widespread case: menorrhagia (heavy menstrual bleeding).
Definition of illness
Menorrhagia is menstrual bleeding that lasts, unlike usual greater than 7 days. It can also be bleeding when it comes heavily.
How could women know when they have heavy bleeding? If you need to use a tampon or pad, every 2 hours or pass clots the size of 1 / 4 or larger, this is heavy bleeding.
Symptoms
- Soaking by using one or more sanitary pads or tampons every hour.
- Need to apply double hygienic safety to control your menstrual flow.
- Need to awaken to change clean protection throughout the night.
- Bleeding for longer than a week.
- Passing blood clots large than a quarter in most cases.
- Restricting daily work because of heavy menstrual flow.
- Symptoms of anemia, which include tiredness, fatigue, or shortness of breath.
Causes
Problems related to the uterus:
- Uterine fibroids or polyps inside the uterus
- cancer of the uterus or cervix
- Certain types of contraception, for example, an intrauterine device (IUD)
- Problems related to pregnancy period, such as miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy
Risk factors
The risk factors vary among young and old women and if there are any medical conditions or diseases that could cause someway menorrhagia. In a regular cycle, releasing an egg from the ovaries stimulates the body to produce progesterone. This female hormone is more essential for maintaining a normal period.
Heavy menstrual bleeding in adolescent girls is because of anovulation. Teenage girls are particularly prone to anovulatory cycles in the first year after their first menstruation.
Whereas in older women is due to uterine pathology, including fibroids, polyps, and adenomyosis; however, other problems such as uterine cancer, bleeding disorders, drug side effects, and liver or kidney disease can contribute.
When to see a doctor
You may see a doctor if you have any symptoms:
- vaginal bleeding so hard that at least one pillow or tampon per hour has soaked for more than two hours
- bleeding between periods or irregular vaginal bleeding
Diagnosis
Your doctor may ask you questions about your medical history and your menstrual cycles. You may be asked to register the bleeding days and the bleeding days, including notes on how important your blood flow is and the level of health protection needed to control it.
Therefore, your doctor may do a physical exam and may recommend one or more tests or procedures such as:
- Blood tests: to check for iron deficiency or anemia
- Pap smear
- Endometrial ultrasound
- Biopsy.
Differential diagnosis
- Coagulation disorders
- Endometrial polyps
- Genitourinary infection
- Intrauterine device
- Liver disease/failure
- Medications
- Renal disease/failure
- Steroid hormones
- Uterine fibroids
- Vascular imbalance
- Adenomyosis
Management
The way patients will receive treatment depends on what leads to bleeding and how severe it is. Your doctor will also examine your age, general health, and medical history; how well it responds to a particular medication, procedure, or therapy.
Here are many of the most recommended treatments:
Iron Supplements: to get more iron into the blood and help it carry more oxygen when you have signs of anemia.
- Ibuprofen: used to relieve pain, menstrual cramps, and bleeding. However, in some women, NSAIDs can increase the risk of bleeding.
- Birth Control Pills: To make periods come regularly and reduce bleeding.
- Intrauterine Contraception (IUC): To increase the regularity of your period and reduce the amount of bleeding from medication administered into the uterus.
- Hormone therapy (drugs containing estrogen and/or progesterone) – to bleeding less.
- Desmopressin nasal spray: to stop bleeding among people with certain bleeding disorders, such as B. von Willebrand’s disease and mild hemophilia, by releasing a clotting protein or “factor” that is stored in the lining of the blood vessels that help the blood to clot and temporarily increases the level of these proteins in the blood.
- Antifibrinolytics: is used to reduce bleeding by preventing a clot from breaking up.
References
- Mayoclinic
- CDC
- NHS
- Medscape
