You’re envious of your friends who know exactly, almost to the minute, when they’re going to get their periods. Or, you wish to be one of those women who bleeds for a few days and then they’re done.
For many women, menstruation is anything but comfortable or reliable — up to one quarter of women have irregular menstrual cycles or abnormal periods.
Given the many different ways that periods and menstrual cycles can be considered irregular or abnormal, Dr. Fernando Otero and the team here at Women’s Clinic of the Rio Grande Valley want to take a look at five common examples in this month’s blog post.
Under normal circumstances, your periods should arrive within a few days of a regular schedule — every 28-30 days, for example. Instead, your periods are unreliable at best, and you never know whether it’s going to be 20 days or 40 days between periods.
These swings in your menstrual cycles aren’t what we consider normal, and they should be evaluated by us.
Even if your periods keep a regular schedule, if that schedule is more often than every 21 days or less frequent than every 45 days, we consider this to be irregular menstruation.
It's normal to experience some pelvic pain during your periods, especially during the first 1-3 days. But if these cramps are debilitating and prevent you from functioning well, this isn’t normal. Or, if you experience cramps that last more than 3-4 days, this isn’t normal either.
As with cramps, you might experience heavy bleeding during the first few days of your period, but this bleeding should be within reason. For example, you shouldn’t be soaking through tampons or pads every hour or two, even at night. Heavy bleeding could be a sign of an underlying problem, such as endometriosis or uterine fibroids.
We also consider any bleeding that lasts for more than 7 days to be heavy bleeding.
Another common example of an irregular menstrual cycle is when you miss 3 or more periods in a row. If you’re not pregnant or transitioning through perimenopause or menopause, missed periods signal an ovulation issue that we want to investigate.
We understand that no two women experience menstrual cycles in exactly the same way, and that there are many variations. As a result, figuring out whether your menstrual cycle is normal can be tricky. Given what we’ve just reviewed, we hope these rules of thumb can help guide you.
If you’re at all on the fence, it’s best to err on the side of caution and contact one of our offices in McAllen or Edinburg, Texas, to schedule a consultation.
