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Heavy periods aren't usually a sign of anything serious. But they can disrupt your life and make you feel miserable. You may worry about having an "accident" and missing out on social events or sport.

Doctors call heavy periods menorrhagia.

There are plenty of treatments to try for heavy periods, including drugs and surgery. What you choose may depend on your age, whether you want to have children, what's causing your heavy periods and just how much your periods disrupt your life.

• It can be hard to judge whether your periods are heavy. Symptoms include having to change your pad or tampon every hour or two, needing to wear both types of protection, getting up at night to change your pad or tampon, and having "floods" (sudden flows of blood that soak your pad or clothes).
• Heavy periods don't mean there's anything seriously wrong.
• But if you have bleeding between your periods you should see your doctor.
• Heavy periods can be treated with drugs or surgery.

Your periods start at puberty and finish at menopause. They are part of your menstrual cycle. Your menstrual cycle is controlled by your hormones.

Here's what happens every month.

• Hormones make the lining of your womb (your endometrium) thicker and softer, so it's ready for pregnancy.
• If you don't become pregnant, your hormone levels start to drop.
• This drop in hormones causes your womb lining to swell.
• The extra blood and tissue that made your womb lining thicker come away. This is your period.
• You lose about seven to eight teaspoonfuls of blood during a normal period (35 milliliters to 40 milliliters).^{1 2}
• You usually lose most blood in the first few days of your period,² and less in the last day or two.

The menstrual cycle usually lasts about 28 days, but it can be shorter or longer. To learn more, see What happens every month.

You may also want to learn more about your reproductive system. These are the parts of the body that help you get pregnant. See Your reproductive system.

During a heavy period, you lose about twice as much blood as normal. That's around 16 teaspoonfuls (80 milliliters).³ Some women lose even more.

But it's not easy to measure exactly how much blood you lose during your period. Your doctor will probably make a diagnosis from what you say about your periods rather than from measuring how much blood you actually lose. See How do doctors diagnose heavy periods? to learn more.

There are many possible reasons why your periods are heavy.

• An imbalance in your hormones: This is most common in teen-agers who are having their first few periods and in women who are near menopause.
• Fibroids in the womb: These are large growths in the womb lining. They aren't cancer, and they aren't harmful. Fibroids bleed just like the womb lining, so they can make periods heavy.⁴
• A chemical imbalance: Prostaglandins are chemicals that control the tightening of the muscles in your womb. They can also make blood vessels wider and narrower. An imbalance of prostaglandins can cause heavy bleeding.⁵

Some women are more likely to get heavy periods than others. This is because they have certain risk factors.

Risk factors are things that increase your chances of getting a condition. But if you have a risk factor for heavy periods, it doesn't mean you'll get them for sure. It just means you're more likely to get them.

Getting older seems to be the most important risk factor for heavy periods. About 1 in 4 women aged 41 to 49 have heavy periods. They are also quite common in young teenagers when they first start getting their periods.

Heavy periods can also run in families. If your mother had (or has) heavy periods, this increases your chance of having them, too.

To learn more see Risk factors for heavy periods.