How Do You Know If Your Period is "Normal"

Judging how heavy your periods are is difficult. And filling out forms can be one of the most challenging parts of the doctors visit. At the gyno office one of the first questions is, "are your periods normal?" and you need to judge that. So that requires you to know your normal, and a bit about others normal as well. Timing is important, just keeping the "menstrual calendar" is helpful, and yes, many cycles are 28 days. We've discussed the range of normal in a few posts. Judging the amount of bleeding is a different issue. Pad tests, used mostly in research, are very helpful, but it's a bit awkward. And when you are young or have other medical issues Pad Testing is difficult to accomplish. Pad testing means weighing for menstrual blood, and by the way we also say pad tests when you are older means weighing for pee. For accuracy, and knowing whether you've really passed clots or whether you soaked through the pads, or just change your pad a lot, it's a good technique, again, it's good at least in the gyne research labs. But there may be better ways...or not better, lets say easier to tolerate, ways to measure the amount of blood you loose. Marking down on a scale of spotting, bleeding or clotting is a good way to track. Traditionally it's been the amount of anemia that physicians have defined as evidence that you are bleeding too much. Or simply that a woman is passing clots. Or changing more than a super tampon per hour for hours and hours. Or a match the pictures sort of test with amounts of blood on a pad corresponding to how much blood usually is present on a pad test. But for some women bleeding to much just means it's bothersome to you, regardless as to how similar it is to your sister's period! So if you need to know what is normal, get in to chat with your gyno and you may be able to figure this out!

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Passing Your Uterine Lining, Menstrual Period Norms

Decidual Cast Periods can be fairly easy, passing some tissue at a time, or off can come the whole lining in one piece called a decidual cast. Generally the lining of the uterus is only 6-8 mm thick at the time of the menstrual period, and it is shed gradually, a few cells at a time. The decidual cast is when the entire lining passes spontaneously. It's not uncommon, but it usually both uncomfortable, and alarming to some. But us women are designed to have some sort of periods Or Not? We have to pass tissue each month. Or Not? Are they good for us? Or Not? Do we want them? Or Not? Is this something that is individual? Or Not? It's a complex topic that I will be discussing a lot over my time in this blog. So lets start with basics: How much do we bleed and what are we loosing, and just what was this that the patient passed? And another basic: track your periods, and the Women's Health Practice site http://www.womenshealthpractice.com/media/pdf/menstrual_chart.pdf you...

Post-Endometrial Ablation Syndrome

If you have had an endometrial ablation and have developed symptoms of pelvic pain you might have post endometrial ablation syndrome. What is post-endometrial ablation syndrome? It is a constellation of symptoms due to entrapped blood or tissue within a uterus that has previously undergone an endometrial ablation. We are able to diagnose this at Women's Health Practic e but occasionally other conditions are causing similar symptoms. Other complications of endometrial ablation include pregnancy, risks from pre-existing conditions such as a polyp or fibroid, an infection of the uterus, or a pregnancy. If you have had a tubal ligation then it is possible that the condition could be post-ablation tubal sterilization syndrome. The ablation procedure is designed to destroy all lining tissue, but in fact there is no way to confirm the completeness of the ablation. It is thought that either residual or regrowth of the tissue is producing the symptoms of post-endometrial ablation syndrom...

You Have an IUD: But a Positive Pregnancy Test

Fortunately IUD pregnancy failures are rare. But if you have an IUD for contraception, and you get a positive pregnancy test, you probably ask yourself, what next? Well, make your gyno appointment promptly, this is a condition that is not typically an emergency, but it can be and it’s not handled over the phone or on a blog, or through self diagnosis! That being said, some researchers from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas decided to look back at over 4100 women who had IUDs and of those 42 cases who became pregnant in their institution, over about a year period of time, to help understand what these women could expect when they got to their gyno and what actually happened to their pregnancies. Accurate pregnancy diagnosis, pelvic examination, and pelvic ultrasound were the cornerstones of the evaluations. They had very specific ways they looked at their ultrasound to prove there was no pregnancy in the fallopian tube, or partially in the fallopian tube...

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