Menstrual bleeding and Iron deficiency

June 1, 2020

Iron deficiency due to heavy menstrual bleeding

In a normal menstrual cycle, the amount of blood loss is on average 35 milliliters. It lasts 3 to 7 days in most of the cases. However, in some individuals, these numbers may be different, lower or higher, due to familial and genetic inheritance. As a matter of fact, it is important to know our menstrual cycle very well. The latter will help you know if something is wrong or not, if the length, amount and pain of the bleedings changed. in this article we are going to talk about abnormal period cycle and effects of it on iron deficiency and quality of life.

What is heavy menstrual bleeding?

There is not an exact definition for heavy menstruation. Each women’s cycle is different from another one. One’s light bleeding can be heavy to another one. But heavy bleeding was first defined as bellow: Menstrual bleeding cycle that takes more than 7 days, or a menstrual cycle with 80 ml or more blood loss.

According to The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the United Kingdom in 2007, heavy menstrual bleeding is defined as bellow:

“Excessive menstrual blood loss that physically, emotionally, socially and financially affects the QoL (Quality of life) of women and can be seen by itself or with other symptoms”

How to practically know if you are bleeding too much?

As you may have considered, it is not easy or even possible to measure the amounts of blood that is being lost during a menstrual cycle. Therefore, here are some tips from the NHS to make it easier to find out:

  1. Using more than one sanitary product to control the bleedings. For Example, one may use tampons and pads at once
  2. One may need to change their pad or tampon every other hour or two, for several hours
  3. Your clothes and sheets may get stains by the blood loss
  4. Passing blood clots more than 2.5 centimeters in length

Use the test link below to find out if you have a heavy menstruation or not! https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/blooddisorders/women/documents/tamponchart-printable.pdf

What puts you at risk of too much bleeding?

 There are some factors that may put someone at more risk for heavy menstrual bleeding. One of them is age. Adolescents and individuals in older reproductive ages are at more risk for the condition. Adolescents may suffer because of anovulation. However, heavy bleedings are due to uterus pathologies in older ages. Speaking of which we can name fibroids, polyps, adenomyosis, cancerous lesions and haematologic disorders. These conditions can be an underlying cause of heavy bleedings.

Pregnancy, using IUD and different medications are other risk factors for heavy bleeding.

Side effects and complications:

Although heavy menstrual bleeding is a complication of an underlying disease, but it can have side effects of its own.

Iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia:

Menstrual bleeding can be a cause of iron deficiency itself. If it gets heavier than usual, iron deficiency anaemia may happen. As a result, one may have tiredness and fatigue all the time. It can lead to mood shifts. Hair loss, spoon shaped nails and change in fertility rates are some of the other complications of iron deficiency anaemia.

Low quality of life scores:

Both iron deficiency and heavy bleeding can interfere with daily life activities, therefore, lowering its quality. Based on these two tests a study was published in 2019:

  • SF-36 is a test to investigate health related quality of life, with 36 items. The higher the score, the higher the quality of life.
  • BFI is a test developed by the MD Anderson Cancer Center in order to identify the level of fatigue. The lower the score, the lower the rate of fatigue interference with daily activities.

Semra Kocaozb and colleagues found that the median general fatigue level and interference with daily activities scores of women with HMB were significantly higher than those without heavy menstrual. Besides a positive relationship was found between the menstruation duration and the general health perception subscale of the SF-36 QoLS. It was also found that the ferritin level and physical functions were decreased significantly as the duration of menstruation increased.

In order to overcome these scores, one easy solution is to overcome iron deficiency. Normal iron levels and not having iron deficiency will help with having more energy. Thus, it will help with quality of life. Irofix will help you win this struggle with the least side effects to worry about.

Keywords : , , , , , ,