Treatment exists for heavy menstruation

Women are not likely to ask a physician about their options for slowing abnormal monthly cycles, according to a new survey.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Dec. 12, 2005.

Washington -- A patient of Michigan obstetrician-gynecologist Elisabeth H. Quint, MD, wore black five days a week. Black, she reasoned, would better hide any embarrassing blood stains that soaked through the various layers of protection she used during her very heavy menstrual cycles.

But the 36-year-old patient also could have been wearing black to mourn the loss of a normal life. Although menorrhagia is not fatal, women with the condition face fatigue and anemia caused by blood loss as well as embarrassing incidents that make them reluctant to leave the house and cause them to severely restrict activities.

Excessive menstrual bleeding affects approximately 10 million women in the United States each year, according to a national survey conducted for the National Women's Health Resource Center, a nonprofit information source on women's health issues. Many accept this condition as a normal part of being a woman and are reluctant to raise the issue with their physicians. But it's not normal, said Dr. Quint, who also directs a Hysterectomy Alternatives Program at the University of Michigan.

Physicians should ask women, especially those who are anemic, the length of their monthly cycles, how much they bleed, and whether and how it affects their lives, Dr. Quint said.

"This condition restricts women in the most personal ways, from their sexual activity to spending quality time with their families and friends," said Amy Niles, president and CEO of the NWHRC. The resource center and the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health in Washington, D.C., co-sponsored a Nov. 15 Capitol Hill briefing on abnormal uterine bleeding.