How does heavy bleeding affect me?

The following paragraphs include real life examples given by women who are coping with heavy bleeding. Hopefully, they will give you an idea of just how heavy "heavy bleeding" can be and so give you the opportunity to compare them with your own bleeding.

At Home
In the home the problem of heavy bleeding may be easier to cope with because there is easy access to a toilet. However, many women who bleed heavily have described how they can change their sanitary towel, walk downstairs, and then need to go straight back up to the bathroom to change again. If this constant need to change continues for hours, or even for days, it severely restricts what you can do during your period.

Some women find that lying down decreases the blood flow, but for many women coping with heavy bleeding at night is a problem. Some have described ruining mattresses and carpets and having to use rubber sheets on the bed during their periods and putting newspaper on the carpet for when they get up in the morning.

Some women have disposable or cloth nappies left over from when their children were babies and find it helpful to wear these to bed as an added precaution. One woman described how she found it necessary to wear rubber pants to bed.

Daily Activites
Leaving the house during a period can be a big problem. One woman described having to wear five towels at a time if she wanted to go out anywhere. This was uncomfortable and made her sore, so that in the end she stopped going out.

Another woman said that if she padded herself up she could just make it to her mother's in the village.

Many women decide not to go out at all during their periods.

Shopping during a heavy period can be a nightmare.

Department stores invariably hide their toilets away on top floors, while some supermarkets do not have toilets at all.

At Work
The problem of heavy bleeding can be very difficult for women who are employed outside the home. In some situations it can be embarrassing to have to keep asking colleagues to take over while you go to the toilet. In some jobs, women are restricted to a certain number of toilet breaks or the women's toilet may be at the other end of the building. Some women tackle this problem directly with their employers while others find this too difficult and feel forced to give up their jobs.

Social Life
Your social life may also be affected by heavy bleeding. Standing for long periods of time can be tiring but sitting down all evening may result in leakage and make it embarrassing to stand up again. Many women ask their friends or partners to check that their clothing is not stained when they stand up.

Sanitary Protection
When your bleeding gets heavier, you have to train yourself to change your towel more often. Once this has become second nature, you may find you can cope with your increased level of bleeding. It is worth trying different sanitary products to see whether a more absorbent towel or a different shape makes the problem more manageable. You may need to wear two towels or a towel and tampon together, perhaps using higher absorbency products.

Obviously any increase in your sanitary protection will cost you more money each month. You will have to weigh up this increased cost against, firstly, the financial savings in terms of laundry costs and spoiled clothing and secondly, the emotional savings in terms of your own confidence and happiness.

If, after changing your method of protection, you still find your heavy bleeding is restricting your life, then you will need to start thinking seriously about seeking treatment.

Treatment of Anaemia
If you are losing so much blood during your period that you become anaemic, you can correct this by taking iron tablets and/or changing your diet.

Good sources of iron are meat, liver, fish, prune juice, legumes, soybeans, wheat, dried fruits, leafy green vegetables, almonds, pumpkin seeds, and molasses.

Citrus fruits or vitamin C supplements help with the absorption of the iron.

Another way to add iron to your food is to cook in cast iron pans.

Investigating heavy bleeding
There are a number of tests your GP can do to try to find the cause of your heavy bleeding. She or he should take a thorough medical history and give you an internal pelvic examination. You will have a blood test for anaemia and possibly a thyroid function test. If you have not had a cervical smear test in the last three to five years, you should arrange to have one.

Women over 40 years may be offered a hysteroscopy or D&CWhen a cause is found:

If the cause of your heavy bleeding is found during these investigations, you will be offered the relevant medical treatment.
If you have a contraceptive coil (IUD) fitted, your doctor will probably recommend that it be removed, as this is one cause of heavy bleeding.

Drug treatments
There are several different types of tablets which are commonly prescribed to control heavy bleeding. The main problem with all of these tablets is that they affect different women in different ways.

For some women, their bleeding is dramatically reduced while others are not helped at all.

For a few women they may make the problem worse.

If one kind of tablet does not work for you, go back to your doctor and consider other options. There are no guidelines for how long a woman should be taking most of these tablets.

There is very little research into the side effects of long term use of many of them.