If heavy periods are disrupting your life, you’re not alone. Many women experience abnormally heavy menstrual bleeding, a condition called menorrhagia, which can lead to fatigue, pain, and missed activities. As many as one-third of women seek gynecologic care for it.
At Westover Hills Women's Health, our team of board-certified OB/GYNs can help you get the treatment you need for extremely heavy periods. If you’re struggling with heavy periods, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team in San Antonio, Texas.
In the meantime, keep reading to learn about the potential causes and treatments for heavy periods.
Heavy periods go beyond inconvenience. If you’re soaking through a pad or tampon every hour, experiencing clots larger than a quarter, or your period lasts more than seven days, it’s considered heavy bleeding.
If you need to double up with pads and tampons or even wake up in the middle of the night to change pads, you’re dealing with a heavy flow.
Not only is this inconvenient for your work and social life, but symptoms like these may also cause anemia, fatigue, and significant discomfort.
Before treating you, we work to pinpoint the source of your heavy bleeding. There are several potential causes for heavy periods, including:
Getting an accurate diagnosis is essential, because many of these conditions require different treatments.
Once we determine the source of your heavy periods, we review your treatment options with you. Fortunately, there are many effective treatments for heavy menstrual bleeding, including these five:
Hormonal treatments like birth control pills, intrauterine devices (IUDs), or progestins can regulate and reduce bleeding. This is a good option for women who aren’t actively trying to grow their family.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen can ease both pain and bleeding. NSAIDs help with bleeding because they reduce the amount of prostaglandin in your endometrium.
The caveat: NSAIDs shouldn’t be a long-term solution because they contribute to gastrointestinal issues, including ulcers. They also aren’t as effective as other treatments, such as levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine devices.
Some gynecologic issues, such as endometriosis or uterine fibroids, may require minimally invasive surgery to address the underlying cause of your heavy bleeding — without major surgery.
When you need surgery, we employ robotic surgical techniques to remove:
In addition to minimally invasive surgery to remove a fibroid, we treat fibroids with radiofrequency ablation.
Removing endometrial lesions, fibroids, and cysts can preserve your fertility since your uterus is left intact.
Endometrial ablation helps with heavy periods by removing the endometrium, which is the lining of your uterus. Because this affects the endometrium, you should consider this only if you’re done having children.
Here at Westover Hills Women’s Health, we offer two types of ablation: Minerva® and NovaSure® endometrial ablation.
Both treatments use radio frequency energy to remove your endometrial lining. The main difference between the two treatments is that Minerva also uses ionized argon gas to create plasma energy. This energy then removes the lining of your uterus.
Endometrial ablation takes just a few minutes, and you don’t have to worry about any surgical incisions or sutures.
If the bleeding is affecting your health, sabotaging your quality of life, and isn't responding to conservative treatments, you may benefit from surgery.
For severe cases of heavy bleeding, we might recommend a hysterectomy to remove your uterus. Hysterectomies are considered a last resort because they end your fertility and trigger surgical menopause, but they also end heavy bleeding — for good.
If needed, we can perform a hysterectomy with only five tiny incisions — instead of a 6-12 inch long incision.
If heavy periods are interfering with your life or causing dizziness, shortness of breath, or extreme fatigue, don’t wait to seek medical advice. Our team of OB/GYNs, nurse practitioners, and midwives can perform tests and imaging to identify the cause and recommend a personalized treatment plan.
The bottom line is that you don’t have to live with the pain and inconvenience of heavy periods. call the San Antonio, Texas, location most convenient to you, or request your appointment online.
