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What Causes Heavy Periods?
I am 51 years old and my period is lasting for twice as long as usual and I am bleeding a lot. Within an hour I go through a super size tampon and even at that it leaks to the pad. This happened a few days into my period and then it was down to about 4 tampons a day and today it is back to a tampon under an hour. Should I be concerned?
Mon, 3 Oct 2016
Hallow Dear,
Such a heavy bleeding without any pain at the age of 51 years indicates a state of high oestrogen state. Such state can lead to overgrowth of the uterine lining (endometrium) which may progress towards the cancer of endometrium.
As an initial step, ultrasonography will give gross information about the endometrial state. If endometrium is more than 4 mm in thickness, further investigations are required. Hysteroscopy/Hysteromicroscopy throws a light on the appearance of the endometrium and then accordingly, guided biopsy of the endometrium is taken. This clinches the diagnosis.
Please do not ignore this bleeding and report to your Gynaecologist ASAP. Any hormonal treatment at this stage may mislead the diagnosis by biopsy.
Majority of cases with such heavy post-menopausal bleeding land into removal of uterus to varied extent.
I hope this gives you initial guidelines.
Dr. Nishikant Shrotri
Such a heavy bleeding without any pain at the age of 51 years indicates a state of high oestrogen state. Such state can lead to overgrowth of the uterine lining (endometrium) which may progress towards the cancer of endometrium.
As an initial step, ultrasonography will give gross information about the endometrial state. If endometrium is more than 4 mm in thickness, further investigations are required. Hysteroscopy/Hysteromicroscopy throws a light on the appearance of the endometrium and then accordingly, guided biopsy of the endometrium is taken. This clinches the diagnosis.
Please do not ignore this bleeding and report to your Gynaecologist ASAP. Any hormonal treatment at this stage may mislead the diagnosis by biopsy.
Majority of cases with such heavy post-menopausal bleeding land into removal of uterus to varied extent.
I hope this gives you initial guidelines.
Dr. Nishikant Shrotri
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