This section explores some of the potential signs and symptoms that might indicate you have abnormal uterine bleeding.
What is abnormal uterine bleeding?
Abnormal uterine bleeding is a term you might not have come across before. It’s a medical term that doctors use to describe a multitude of different period experiences outside of what’s considered a ‘normal range’. It’s more likely you’ve heard this referred to by other names like heavy periods, painful periods or ‘bad’ periods. It’s common, up to 1 in 3 people who have a period will experience abnormal uterine bleeding!
You are the best person to know if your period is affecting your life.
If your period is negatively impacting your life it’s abnormal, even if it is your normal.
Lets go over what an average period is often like
An average period lasts anywhere between 2 and 7 days, and within a 23 to 35 day cycle.
Most people lose somewhere between 20–90 ml of blood, which is about 1 to 6 tablespoons of blood.
Many people experience blood clots during their period. Clots up to the size of 50c coin are considered ‘normal’.
The colour of your blood may change during your period. This may range from bright red at the beginning of your period to maroon or dark brown near to the end.
Pain is often a part of experiencing a period and is felt differently by all people. If your period is so painful it is impacting your life negatively there are many options to explore towards a more manageable period.
If your experience of a period falls outside of this spectrum of averages, it is possible you might have abnormal uterine bleeding.
These things might indicate that your period is impacting your life
You may notice a change in your menstrual cycle length or variation between one to the next
The amount of pain your period is causing stops you from doing everyday activities and things you enjoy.
The amount of blood you are losing is impacting your life. For example you take a spare change of clothes with you, or are changing your pad or tampon every two hours or more.
Or you experience very light or no bleeding at all.
Bleeding in between periods.
Your period lasts longer than 7 days.