How to Stop Heavy Menstrual Bleeding

Video Transcript

"So to stop heavy menstrual bleeding, first let's go over what normal, a normal menstrual period is. A normal menstrual period should range anywhere between two and seven days and should consist of 80 milliliters of blood, should be less than 80 milliliters of blood. Now it's very difficult to measure exact amounts of blood loss when you're having your period but one way to gage this is to count the number of tampons or pads you use during your period and compare that to previous periods as well as note how heavy, how much they're being soaked and if for example you are going through one tampon, one pad an hour, that's probably too much and would be considered heavy menstrual bleeding and you should contact your doctor quickly. To also figure out why you are having this heavy menstrual bleeding you should note what time of your menstrual cycle you are experiencing this bleeding. If it's occurring during your normal expected time that you would expect to have a menstrual period and it's just heavier than usual that's important to note and to let the doctor know so they can make an appropriate diagnosis and figure out why you're having this heavy bleeding. If it's occurring in between periods that's also important because the source of that bleeding could be very different and could require different medications or different modalities to help you with that. Now ways to stop this heavy bleeding depending on what the diagnosis is and the source of the heavy bleeding is can range from hormonal therapy through the use of for example birth control pills, sometimes we use intrauterine devices that contain hormones as well and in some cases it might require a procedure or even surgery. That is why you should probably contact your physician again preferably a gynecologist to try to help figure out the source of this heavy bleeding."