Periods are something that you feel messy and worry about at the same time. Every woman’s period is different. Some women bleed for two days while others bleed for the whole week. You may notice the change in your periods with light spotting to decrease inflow or heavy enough to make you feel uncomfortable from inside. Sometimes, women feel cramps and some others do not feel anything at all. Some have pain in their stomach while others tend to increase their flow with the increase in food intake. Whatever it is, periods often make it painful and intensely worrisome. If you or anyone you know is going through the adverse changing symptoms of heavier periods than normal, you can consider talking to the experts of Lifeline Hospital.
- As long as your periods stay consistent, you may not be likely to worry about your periods.
- You should be alert concerning changes in your body while you bleed or having the changes for your menstrual cycle every month.
Herein, we have given you the following points related to why should you worry about your periods:
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Skipped periods
Most of the periods get around once in 28 days. Some women have regular periods while for others the period may have stopped, or there could be reasons for this. One of the major possibilities for losing the cycle of period is pregnancy. In that case, you can have a quick test. If pregnancy is not the possible cased, you may have skipped periods because of the following reasons:
- Intense exercise or extreme weight loss: over-exercising can control your menstrual flow. When you lose too much fat, you may develop the chance of losing your periods or skipping them. This is because of the significant changes in your body brought by the exercise or the change in hormone manufacturing.
- Weight gain: gaining weight is also the reason for skipping periods. This can disrupt your monthly cycle and may cause you to put on more weight in case you have no periods for months.
- Continuous birth control pills: continuous use of birth pills can affect your natural tendency to get pregnant and your periods. Your periods can stop altogether.
- Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS): With this condition, you may have irregular periods as the growth of the ovaries is overburdened by the formation of cysts on them.
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Heavy bleeding
The volume of periods varies from one woman to another. Sometimes, you may get attacked by the abnormal menstrual flow by the change in your lifestyle or age. Along with heavy bleeding, you may see other diseases causing symptoms like anemia, shortness of breath, etc. heavy menstrual flow often affects teenagers when they experience period for the first time. There can be other causes of symptoms of heavier periods than normal that may further include:
- A hormone imbalance: you may likely have symptoms like PCOS, and hypothyroidism. These particular conditions cause hormonal imbalance that may affect the lining of the uterine, making it become thicker and leading to heavier periods.
- Fibroids or polyps: these are the non-cancerous growths that can make you bleed more than normal.
- Intrauterine device (IUD): this is one of the birth control methods that often cause heavy bleeding as the major side effect. It may begin during the first year when you start using the methods.
- Pregnancy complications: there can be chances of pregnancy complications that may further lead to miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy. This can happen when you may not realize that you are pregnant.
- Cancer: you may have cancer, especially uterine cancer or cervical cancer. For this reason, you may have heavy bleeding because of some relatable causes. But, more often cancer is caused after menopause.
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Abnormal Periods (include sometimes long and sometimes short periods)
Normal periods last till two to seven days while the short periods may create symptoms where you may not require to worry. This is because sometimes, our body gets fit into the conditions from the beginning. Some women may feel short periods from the beginning of their period and some others may have heavy periods from the beginning. In other cases, the use of birth control pills causes women to have a short period while in other cases when you are aging, you may have disrupted shorter periods. Some factors causing heavy period include hormonal imbalance, polyps, or fibroids.
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Intense cramps
Cramps are the normal part of the menstrual flow. They develop because of the uterine contractions affecting the uterine walls and pushing them in the outward direction. Cramps typically start a day or two before you hit your period and may last till two or four days. For some women, cramps are mild and may not be worrisome. While for others, these are the major problems and may create a severe condition called dysmenorrhea. You may develop cramps because of the following reasons:
- fibroids
- an IUD
- endometriosis
- adenomyosis
- pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
- sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
- stress
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Having menstrual-like flow in between your periods
Symptoms of heavier periods than normal and feeling the sensation of bleeding in between periods are not normal. These changes can appear because of the use of birth control pills. These symptoms usually make you have a trip to your doctor. There can be other reasons for bleeding in between your period. These are:
- changing birth control pills
- Sometimes skipping the birth control pills can also create the similar effect
- STDs like chlamydia or gonorrhea
- PCOS
- It can also happen because of any kind of injury to the vagina, especially during sex
- uterine polyps or fibroids
- pregnancy
- miscarriage
- perimenopause
- Cancer-related to cervical, ovarian, or uterine
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Breast pain
This is something that you cannot ignore especially during period. Sometimes menstrual flow causes severe weight gain and can make a woman feel full on the stomach. You may likely develop breast pain during menstrual flow, especially when the flow is heavy. The pain may be tender or may create discomfort with the fluctuation in your hormone level. Sometimes you may feel pain in your armpits where the breast tissues called Tail of Spence are present. If you are experiencing breast pain and that too doesn’t coincide with the monthly cycle, you can consider talking to a doctor. Breast pain can also be a sign of cancer, so you should not ignore the symptoms.