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Heavy periods
Category: Women's Health · All women's health symptoms
What it can feel like
Heavy periods means menstrual bleeding that interferes with life — soaking through protection hourly, passing large clots, flooding, needing double protection, or periods lasting beyond about seven days. Heavy bleeding is a symptom with a mechanism, and it is also a leading cause of iron deficiency in women.
Possible causes
A symptom can have many causes, and most are not serious. The lists below group conditions this symptom can be associated with — common causes first. They are possibilities to discuss with a clinician, not a diagnosis.
Common causes
Heavy periods can be associated with fibroids (benign muscle growths in the womb wall), adenomyosis (womb lining tissue within the muscle), polyps, thyroid problems, and the copper coil.
Other possible causes
Heavy periods can also be associated with bleeding disorders such as von Willebrand disease (a clue when heaviness dates from the very first periods, with bruising and nosebleeds), womb lining abnormalities including precancerous change and cancer, and medicines such as blood thinners.
Red flags — when to seek help promptly
- Bleeding so heavy you feel faint, breathless or your heart races
- Heavy periods with pallor, exhaustion or hair shedding (possible anaemia)
- New heavy bleeding after the age of 45, or any bleeding after the menopause
- Heavy bleeding in pregnancy, or with severe pelvic pain
What a clinician may do
A clinician will quantify the loss (picture charts help), check a blood count and iron stores, review medicines and contraception, and examine the pelvis. Ultrasound images the womb; a lining sample (biopsy) is taken when indicated by age or pattern. Treatments range from medicines and hormonal options to procedures and surgery.
Watch: related videos
Examination and clinical videos from the MedicalVideos.com library relevant to this symptom. Some clinical footage is graphic — that is the nature of a medical video library.
Related guides on MedicalVideos.com
Frequently asked questions
How much bleeding is too much?
Clinically, bleeding that limits your life — flooding through clothes, hourly changes, large clots, double protection, avoiding leaving home on heavy days. If it is affecting you, it qualifies; you do not have to measure millilitres to deserve treatment.
Can heavy periods cause anaemia even if I eat well?
Yes — menstrual loss is iron loss, and dietary intake often cannot match heavy monthly losses. Fatigue, pallor, breathlessness on exertion and hair shedding are the results. Iron is replaced while the bleeding itself is treated.
Related symptoms — Women's Health
Browse the H section of the A–Z list or return to the Symptoms A–Z hub.