Introduction
Many women experience problems such as pain, cramps, and irregular or very heavy bleeding during their period. If a woman has to change tampons or sanitary pads more than every few hours, her period is probably heavier than normal. Menstrual bleeding is clearly too heavy if it is affecting your everyday life and the loss of blood is making you feel physically weak.
About 10 out of 100 women have heavy periods. A period that lasts longer than five to seven days is considered to be prolonged menstrual bleeding. The medical term for these two problems is menorrhagia. They commonly occur together because they often have the same underlying cause.
Some women have developed useful strategies for dealing with heavy periods. If the bleeding is causing problems or an iron deficiency, for example, then medication to reduce the bleeding may be an option. Surgery is another possibility.