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Heavy bleeding during menstrual periods is a symptom many women experience. But if your bleeding is so heavy it disrupts daily activities, you may actually have a condition called menorrhagia.
Women who have menorrhagia experience abnormally heavy or prolonged bleeding and cramping with every period to the point they can’t maintain their usual activities. Symptoms of this condition include:
- Soaking through one or more sanitary pads or tampons every hour for consecutive hours
- Having to use double sanitary protection (tampon and pad) to control your menstrual flow
- Bleeding for longer than a week
- Passing blood clots with the menstrual flow for more than one day
- Having to restrict usual activities
- Experiencing fatigue or tiredness (symptoms of anemia)
Any number of conditions can cause menorrhagia. Common causes include:
- Hormone imbalance
- Ovary dysfunction
- Uterine fibroids or polyps
- Adenomyosis – Condition that occurs when the glands from the uterine lining become embedded in the uterine muscle.
- Pregnancy complications
- Medications
There are a variety of options to treat menorrhagia, from drug therapies (iron supplements, NSAIDs, contraceptives, transexamic acid) to surgical procedures.
One procedure, endometrial ablation, removes the uterine lining, the part of the body that causes heavy bleeding. NovaSure endometrial ablation is a safe and effective in-office procedure completed in four steps and less than five minutes. Learn about the procedure in our January blog post.
Schedule an appointment with your gynecologist or discuss your heavy bleeding menstrual symptoms at your next annual checkup. Your doctor can review your symptoms, order necessary tests and determine the cause. If you are a candidate for the NovaSure procedure, you’ll be able to ask questions about the effective treatment option.
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