Heavy periods affect about a third of women. If you have unusually heavy bleeding — a condition known as menorrhagia — you may experience long periods (seven days or more of bleeding).
Or you may bleed so heavily that you regularly soak through a pad or tampon in an hour or less or need to get up in the middle of the night to change your pad or tampon.
Medication is one of the treatments for heavy menstrual bleeding. But it doesn’t always provide a solution. When that happens, we may recommend other treatment options.
In this blog, Susan Crockett, MD, and her colleagues here at Virtuosa GYN in San Antonio, Texas, would like to tell you more about the treatment options for heavy periods, including those that may provide relief when medication doesn’t help.
Please read on to learn more about this important topic.
Causes of heavy periods
Heavy periods can be the result of a range of conditions, including:
- Endometriosis — When tissue from inside your uterus grows in places where it shouldn’t, such as the outer part of your uterus, your gastrointestinal tract, or your other reproductive organs
- Polycystic ovary syndrome — A condition in which hormone imbalances lead to various symptoms, including heavy bleeding, weight gain, and excess body hair growth
- Uterine fibroids — Noncancerous growths in the walls of your uterus
- Ovarian cysts — Fluid-filled growths in your ovaries
- Pelvic inflammatory disease — A sexually transmitted bacterial infection
Treating heavy periods
Whenever possible, we seek to manage your heavy periods with conservative treatment, such as medication. Sometimes hormonal birth control (the pill, vaginal ring, hormonal IUD, or hormonal contraceptive injections) reduces bleeding.
Over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) medicines may also decrease bleeding if you take them just before or right at the start of your period.
When medication doesn’t do the trick, we may recommend a medical procedure to address the cause of your heavy bleeding. The type of medical procedure would depend on the cause of your heavy bleeding.
For example, if you have uterine fibroids, we may recommend laparoscopic robotic surgery to remove your fibroids, or a procedure known as the Accessa procedure, which uses radiofrequency energy to shrink fibroids.
And if your heavy bleeding from endometriosis, we may recommend a type of surgery known as endometrial ablation to remove endometrial implants.
Another treatment option is hysterectomy, a surgical procedure to remove your uterus.
Minimally invasive surgery
If you need a surgical procedure, Dr. Crockett aims whenever possible to perform minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery using the da Vinci robot-assisted surgical system. This type of surgery results in smaller incisions, less pain, quicker recovery, less scarring, and a lower risk of side effects.
Read one of our recent blogs to learn about the many benefits of da Vinci robotic surgery.
Care for your menstrual symptoms
Don’t suffer in silence with heavy periods and other menstrual discomforts. Treatment can alleviate pain, reduce bleeding, and improve your quality of life. To schedule an evaluation, contact us today at our San Antonio, Texas, office.
