October 7, 2024 • 22 mins
What if you suddenly discovered that the heavy menstrual bleeding you've been enduring isn't just a nuisance, but a potential indicator of underlying health issues? Join me on this enlightening episode of the Ageless and Awesome podcast, where we tackle the crucial yet often-overlooked topic of heavy bleeding during perimenopause. Understand what constitutes normal menstrual bleeding, making sure you're equipped with the knowledge to accurately measure it using pads, tampons, and menstrual cups. Recognise the red flags, such as frequent changes of super pads or tampons and sizeable clots, which could necessitate medical evaluation. This episode is all about empowering you to be proactive about your menstrual health and encouraging you to seek help when needed.
Together, we'll explore the root causes of abnormal bleeding, from endometriosis and PCOS to fibroids and adenomyosis. With a focus on holistic management, I'll share insights into how natural medicine can alleviate symptoms and the importance of nutrition in maintaining hormonal health. Delve into practical strategies as this comprehensive guide provides you with the confidence and knowledge to navigate the perimenopause journey, ensuring you're not alone in this vital conversation about women's health.
Are you a woman feeling stressed, flat and experiencing the challenges of perimenopause?
It’s time to reclaim your youthful energy, radiance and self-assurance (and your ideal weight).
I’m here to help with my proven method.
Here's how I can support you -
1. Hit your health and wellbeing goals this year, balance your hormones and lose weight with your own personalised protocol, based on your body's biochemistry. Sounds awesome right!! Book a free 30 minute Peri Weight Loss Assessment with me so we can discuss your health and wellbeing goals and also see how I might be able to support you. Book your call here.
2. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook - @the.perimenopause.path
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and
Awesome podcast.
I'm an age-defying naturopathand clinical nutritionist and
I'm here to bust myths aroundwomen's health and aging so that
you can be ageless and awesomein your 40s, 50s and beyond.
The Ageless and Awesome podcastis dedicated to helping women
(00:24):
through perimenopause andmenopause with great health, a
positive mindset and outrageousconfidence.
Hit, subscribe or follow nowand let's get started.
Hello, gorgeous one, andwelcome to this week's episode
of the Ageless and Awesomepodcast of the Ageless and
(00:47):
Awesome podcast.
This week I'm going to talkabout a symptom of perimenopause
that a lot of women strugglewith.
A lot of women don't realize,even though they're struggling,
they don't realize that this isnecessarily abnormal and they
just push through.
And some women with thissymptom have even been to see
their GP or other healthcareprovider and have been told oh
(01:08):
well, it's just perimenopause,there's nothing you can do.
So what I'm going to talk abouttoday is the heavy bleeding
that can sometimes happen inperimenopause.
So, remembering the definitionof perimenopause is that it is
that period of time, thattransitional time prior to
menopause.
So this can happen up to 10years prior to menopause.
(01:33):
Menopause just to find that.
In case you're not aware,menopause starts from 12 months
after your last period, 12months after your last period.
So if you are in your 40s or50s, it is always a good idea to
just keep a little bit of atrack of your cycle so that, if
(01:54):
you do go for a few months andyou think, oh, I haven't had my
period for a bit, you knowexactly when it was that you
last had it, because then youcan start potentially
calculating your 12 months,because sometimes women and
certainly it happened to me Igot to 10 months and I was like,
yes, I'm nearly there, and thenI got a period again.
So it can happen that you cango almost to that 12 months and
(02:20):
then, if you have a period priorto that 12 months ending, you
then start your clock again foranother 12 months.
So anyway, let's get back towhat I'm talking about, which is
heavy bleeding and many women,many clients that I have, many
women that I speak to, have bigissues with heavy bleeding
(02:43):
during this time of life, inperimenopause, that is, now.
Also.
Many women have heavy bleedingprior to perimenopause.
Any of this heavy bleedingneeds to be checked out because
there are multiple differentcauses that sometimes need to be
addressed relatively urgently,and I know it can sometimes be a
(03:07):
bit scary getting some of thesethings investigated, but you
are absolutely better off havingthe knowledge rather than just
putting up with some of thesesymptoms that can be absolutely
debilitating, you know.
So, before I guess we get intoabnormal bleeding, let's talk
(03:27):
about what normal bleeding isduring your period.
Now, normal bleeding we expectto lose around 80 mils of blood.
Okay, and if you're thinking,well, how am I going to measure
that?
Look at whatever protectionthat you're using.
If you're using pads, tampons,a cup is really easy because
(03:50):
you'll know exactly how much isin the cup, even the period
undies, they will say whetherthey absorb.
You know two tampons, onetampon or whatever.
And just to give you a roughguide, and you might be able to
even look at the brand of theproduct that you're using
whether it's pads or tampons orundies and see it might tell you
(04:13):
on the box how much absorptionthere is, or on their website.
Generally speaking, a regulartampon will hold roughly 5 mils,
sometimes a little more, and asuper tampon roughly five mils,
sometimes a little more, and asuper tampon roughly 10 mils or
maybe 15.
Again, it depends on the brand.
So if you know that.
(04:33):
And also, pads will have.
Sort of pads are a littledifferent because you don't tend
to use them until they get full, but you may have a sense of it
anyway.
Like I guess what I would sayis if you're having to change a
super pad more than every sortof one to two hours in that time
(04:53):
frame, that's probably a bitheavy.
Same with tampons.
If you're having to changewithin one to two hours whether
it's a regular or a super, itcould be too heavy bleeding.
I've literally had women say tome they'll go to the bathroom,
they'll change their regular orsuper tampon, they will wash
(05:14):
their hands, walk out of thebathroom and they'll feel that
they need to change it again.
I've had women say to me thatthey have gotten up from a chair
with a tampon in and blood hasflowed down their legs down to
their shoes.
Even Clearly that is not anormal flow.
(05:35):
Very occasionally women mightexperience like a gush Again.
If that just happens as aone-off, it's probably not
anything too significant.
But if you're getting thisevery period, if you're getting
this day after day, severaltimes a day, that is too much
loss and there could besomething underlying it.
(05:58):
That needs to be addressed.
Other clues are the amount ofclots that are in your flow and
if you've never noticed, it'sprobably a good idea to check it
out, to look at the flow, lookat the tampon, the pad, et
cetera, whatever you're using.
I know it is a little hard inthe undies because they tend to
(06:19):
have black liners, but if youcan have a look and just see,
are you seeing lots of tinyclots, that's generally okay,
but if you're seeing clots ofthe size of a 20 cent piece an
Australian 20 cent piece that isnot okay.
That is something that needs tobe checked out.
And, yeah, it is reallyimportant to really look at this
(06:41):
and understand your menstrualhealth by being a little bit
more in touch with what'shappening to your body during
your period.
Another clue that your period istoo heavy is that you just
can't get your iron levelswithin the normal range and,
again, I see a lot of women thathave low iron consistently.
(07:06):
They really struggle to keeptheir iron levels to a range
that's going to be workable fortheir body, because we need iron
for many, many, many differentthings, including energy, and
it's horrible to be draggingyourself around with no energy
because you can't get your ironinto a decent range.
(07:28):
And that could be another signthat, even though you may not
think your periods are ultraheavy, maybe they are.
This is one of the things Ihave found over my years of
clinical practice is theheaviness of a woman's periods
is not necessarily somethingthey're discussing a lot with
their friends.
And even if you say, oh, I'vegot really heavy periods, when I
(07:49):
really drill down because ifyou're a client of mine
listening to this, you know thatin the initial consult we get
into the nitty gritty of periodflow and to really understand
what is actually happening.
What is the flow?
Normal volume of 80 mils or isit really not?
(08:09):
And whether that's whether it'stoo light, too light is
generally not super significant,unless you're trying to get
pregnant, which is notnecessarily the cohort I work
with, although I do have somewomen that I work with with
fertility that we've had somereally good success with.
But the majority of women Iwork with are in that
perimenopause or postmenopausestage.
(08:30):
So, yeah, if you're strugglingwith your iron, then another
clue, particularly if yourdoctor hasn't asked you about
your periods or if they've justsaid do you have heavy periods?
Because you may not know thatyou have heavy periods, like I
had one lady this is a few yearsago now and I asked her the
first question is you know,would you describe your periods
(08:50):
as heavy, light, normal?
And she said, oh, pretty normal.
And I said, you know, do youuse, you know, pads, tampons et
cetera?
And she said, oh, I use tampons.
And I'm like, okay, well, howmany do you use a day?
And she said 12.
(09:12):
I'm like, okay, is that regularor super Super?
So she was using 12 supertampons a day and then she was
also using two overnight on topof that and she thought that was
normal.
She thought that was normal.
So this is what I mean by like,if your doctor has asked you if
you've got heavy periods andyou're saying no, no, if you
don't know what the benchmark is, then what is normal to you
might be extreme heaviness.
So please keep that in mindwhen you're listening to this
(09:35):
podcast and thinking about yourown experience with your
menstrual flow.
This is a really importantmarker of menstrual health is
the actual amount of flow thatyou're having each cycle.
I guess another thing to pointout is the length of time of
your flow.
So what is considered normal ininverted commas is five to
(09:59):
seven days, even for some womenup to two weeks.
I mean, that's what thetextbooks say.
I don't love that.
To me that's a bit of a problem, I feel.
If that's a consistent thing, Ithink it's quite unusual to
have flow for 14 days, but fiveto seven days is generally the
norm.
(10:21):
And I will also point out thatif you are on the pill like the
contraceptive pill, not hormonesfor MHT or menopause hormone
therapy if you're on the pill,that bleed that you're having is
not technically a period, it isa pill bleed and it's very
difficult to assess themenstrual cycle from a pill
(10:43):
bleed.
So if you think there'ssomething wrong and if you want
to really get in touch with yournatural menstrual cycle, then
you may want to consider,obviously depending if you need
that pill for contraception orother purposes or if you've been
prescribed it for your doctorfor a particular reason.
That's not the situation I'mtalking about.
(11:05):
It's just people that have beenon the pill.
I see a lot of women have beenon the pill for the majority of
their lives and they just theydon't even think about it.
But yeah, if you're reallywanting to get in touch with the
health of your menstrual cycle,you may want to reconsider it,
especially if you don'tcurrently have a partner, if
you're in your forties orfifties and you're just not
quite sure where you're at inyour menstrual life cycle.
(11:27):
Before we move on to talkingabout what's causing this excess
bleeding, I did want to justmake a comment about pain,
because obviously you wouldexpect, if you've got this extra
heavy bleeding, you're going tohave fairly intense pain.
Now, some women do experiencethat and some people don't
necessarily experience that.
(11:47):
And what we know about pain?
Obviously it's very subjectiveand people have different pain
thresholds.
So just because you don't havea lot of pain doesn't mean that
you shouldn't get things checkedout.
And if you are having a lot ofpain but not a lot of flow, that
also probably needs to bechecked out.
Generally, pain is caused bythe uterus contracting trying to
(12:09):
get that flow out of it.
But yeah, sometimes, forwhatever reason and there can be
a number of different ones ifthat uterus is a little bit
overreactive or if there's a lotof clots or there's IBS,
sometimes the bowel and theuterus kind of sit pretty close
to each other so they can talkto each other through the
(12:32):
nervous system and sometimes, ifyou have IBS, that means you
can have fairly painful periodsand vice versa.
You have painful periods thatcan often give you diarrhea and
things like that Not necessarilyin like a technical IBS, but
still it can happen.
Let's talk a little bit aboutwhat possible causes there can
(12:52):
be Now for women that aren't inperimenopause.
Often that might be somethinglike endometriosis.
Sometimes PCOS can cause that.
They're probably the two mostcommon causes, but there can
also be other things that causethis.
So it definitely needs to belooked at by a GP, because often
(13:14):
when we're looking atinvestigating that type of
bleeding, you need to have apelvic ultrasound and that's
something that only really a GPor a gynecologist can authorize.
So yeah, it is important to getit checked out.
But for women in perimenopauseit can be obviously influenced
(13:35):
by the hormonal changes thathappen in perimenopause.
There can also be things likefibroids and adenomyosis that
can really cause this heavybleeding.
And again, there are somethings we can do in natural
medicine to help address thatand, in fact, just generally
(13:56):
with heavy periods.
We have a number of fantasticherbal medicines that can really
help reduce period flow.
I'm not going to talk aboutthose on this podcast, because I
do really believe that when itcomes to this part of our health
, our uterine health, I reallydo feel that you need to see a
(14:18):
practitioner and not justexperiment with herbs you know,
over the counter or whatever totry and manage it on your own.
It really does deserve a properinvestigation.
But just so that you do know,if you go and see your
healthcare professional and theytell you that it is fibroids or
(14:39):
it is adenomyosis or it'ssomething like that, that once
you have that sort of diagnosis,then that's something that you
can work with a naturopath toget some good relief of your
symptoms.
Now, sometimes women areadvised to have surgical
intervention with regard to that, and that is absolutely a
(15:01):
discussion for you and yourhealthcare professional, your
medical healthcare professional.
That is beyond my scope ofpractice, but, yeah, it's good
to be armed with as muchinformation as possible about
your body.
So, yes, so there are someherbal medicines we can use, but
, as always in natural medicine,we want to get to the
(15:22):
underlying cause.
So if it is hormonal imbalance,then we want to look at what
your hormones are doing and thenmanage that, and there's a few
different ways that we do that.
There are dietary measures thatwe can take because when we are
looking at, for example,hormone imbalance and we know
women in perimenopause havehormone imbalances that's part
(15:44):
of the process.
So we can help manage thatusing liver, supporting foods
like our cruciferous veggies, somaking sure you're getting lots
of veggies like your broccoli,your cauliflower, kale, brussels
sprouts, spinach, garlic, onion, obviously if those foods are
(16:05):
tolerated by you.
Just a little caveat If you dohave thyroid issues, you need to
cook those foods really wellrather than having them raw only
if you have a thyroid problem.
So we want to really helpsupport the liver to do its job,
to detoxify and clear hormonesso that we can balance out those
(16:25):
hormones naturally.
If you are holding excess weight, then it's a really good idea
to work on managing that, tobring yourself into a healthy
weight range.
As you know, that's somethingthat I love to support women
doing and that is somethingthat's done also with a focus on
(16:47):
perimenopause management andpost menopause management.
So definitely getting as yourbody into as healthy a state as
possible through diet, throughmaking sure you're eating the
right foods to support the rightorgans, if you like.
I did mention liver, but also,you know, lots of antioxidants.
(17:09):
Brightly colored berries,fruits and veggies are going to
give you lots of goodantioxidants.
That does also help withdetoxification.
Also, just making sure you'regetting enough protein, enough
omega-3 fatty acids, et cetera.
To know whether you're gettingenough protein, the general rule
is that it's one gram for everykilo of body weight that you
(17:32):
have.
Now, for some people we want togo a little higher than that,
for some people maybe a littlelower.
So again, talking to ahealthcare professional can be
very beneficial to make surethat what you're doing is
actually going to work well foryou and it's actually going to
get you the result you want inas fast a time as possible for
(17:54):
you.
In what you're looking for andI can't stress that enough I see
some women that have doneextreme dieting to lose weight,
to lose weight in a very shortperiod of time when they haven't
really needed to.
We want, ideally, sustainableweight loss, and sustainable
weight loss looks like around0.5 to one kilo a week, not, you
(18:17):
know, losing extreme amounts ofweight over long periods of
time.
That is not over short periodsof time.
Rather, that is not ideal andthat really helps to trigger the
yo-yo effect where you're justgoing to put that weight all
back on in a very short amountof time, and usually more as
well.
I've talked about the yo-yoeffect before in previous
(18:39):
podcasts.
You can probably search for itand I've explained the actual
science behind the yo-yo effect,what goes on in your body
biologically.
So let's see what else can wedo.
Obviously, keeping hydrated isreally important, making sure
you're eating lots of iron-richfoods.
And when you're eating thoseiron-rich foods and I'm not
necessarily just talking aboutred meat, because I know that's
(18:59):
what everyone thinks of whenthey think of iron-rich foods,
but really dark leafy greenswith vitamin C, because vitamin
C aids absorption, becausevitamin C aids absorption.
And the great thing is natureprovides us with vitamin C in a
lot of those iron-rich foodslike your leafy greens, nuts and
seeds, things like that.
(19:20):
Avoiding having your iron-richfoods around tannin-containing
beverages, so dark beverages, socola, tea, coffee, red wine
they will help to block youriron receptors so you don't
absorb that iron very well.
So ideally you would have youriron rich meal and then none of
(19:43):
those iron blocking kind ofdrinks until the ideal is two
hours afterwards.
So there's a hot tip for you,and same with your iron
supplements If you're havingbreakfast, have your iron
supplement and then having acoffee, you've just kind of
wasted your money.
(20:03):
So I would always recommendhaving your iron supplements
either at lunchtime or at night,with food, away from any of
those dark colored beverages.
Let me think if there's anythingelse.
No, I think.
Oh, let's do a little summary.
So I've talked about what isnormal bleeding and what is
abnormal.
So knowing that and having thatinformation is necessary.
(20:27):
So once you've realized thatperhaps your bleeding is
unusually heavy, then probablythe next best thing to do is to
have a discussion with your GPto make sure that no other
referral is required, no otherinvestigations are required, or
if they are, then great, getthem done.
(20:48):
And then if you're getting toldnothing's wrong with you or
you're getting told, oh, this isjust normal part of
perimenopause, just put up withit, all of that sort of thing
then you may get benefit fromreaching out either to me or to
a naturopath or nutritionist inyour local area to get some
(21:11):
support and help.
So I hope this episode has beenhelpful.
I'd love to hear from you tosee what your thoughts are.
Is this something that'shappened to you?
Do you feel like you've beengaslit a little bit, or that you
didn't realize how heavy yourperiods actually were.
This is all, really.
I think women, we just don't getenough information about our
(21:33):
bodies and how they work, and soanything I can do to help
support women to get information, I am all for.
So please do let me know ifthere's other topics that you
would like me to cover.
Anyway, it's been great havingyou listening today.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
I'll be back on Thursday with Qand A.
Thanks so much for joining metoday on the Ageless and Awesome
(21:56):
podcast.
If you liked today's episode,please make sure you click the
little plus button if you're onApple podcasts, or the follow
button if you're on Spotify, sothat you get each new episode
delivered to you every week.
If you like free stuff, thenhead to the show notes and click
the link to receive my freeRadiant Reset Hormone Detox
Guide for Perimenopausal Women.
(22:18):
Or, if you'd like to continuethe discussion, head over to
Instagram and DM me atsuzygardenwellness.
I'd love to connect with you.
Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and
Awesome podcast.
I'm an age-defying naturopathand clinical nutritionist and
I'm here to bust myths aroundwomen's health and aging so that
you can be ageless and awesomein your 40s, 50s and beyond.
The Ageless and Awesome podcastis dedicated to helping women
(00:24):
through perimenopause andmenopause with great health, a
positive mindset and outrageousconfidence.
Hit, subscribe or follow nowand let's get started.
Hello, gorgeous one, andwelcome to this week's episode
of the Ageless and Awesomepodcast of the Ageless and
(00:47):
Awesome podcast.
This week I'm going to talkabout a symptom of perimenopause
that a lot of women strugglewith.
A lot of women don't realize,even though they're struggling,
they don't realize that this isnecessarily abnormal and they
just push through.
And some women with thissymptom have even been to see
their GP or other healthcareprovider and have been told oh
(01:08):
well, it's just perimenopause,there's nothing you can do.
So what I'm going to talk abouttoday is the heavy bleeding
that can sometimes happen inperimenopause.
So, remembering the definitionof perimenopause is that it is
that period of time, thattransitional time prior to
menopause.
So this can happen up to 10years prior to menopause.
(01:33):
Menopause just to find that.
In case you're not aware,menopause starts from 12 months
after your last period, 12months after your last period.
So if you are in your 40s or50s, it is always a good idea to
just keep a little bit of atrack of your cycle so that, if
(01:54):
you do go for a few months andyou think, oh, I haven't had my
period for a bit, you knowexactly when it was that you
last had it, because then youcan start potentially
calculating your 12 months,because sometimes women and
certainly it happened to me Igot to 10 months and I was like,
yes, I'm nearly there, and thenI got a period again.
So it can happen that you cango almost to that 12 months and
(02:20):
then, if you have a period priorto that 12 months ending, you
then start your clock again foranother 12 months.
So anyway, let's get back towhat I'm talking about, which is
heavy bleeding and many women,many clients that I have, many
women that I speak to, have bigissues with heavy bleeding
(02:43):
during this time of life, inperimenopause, that is, now.
Also.
Many women have heavy bleedingprior to perimenopause.
Any of this heavy bleedingneeds to be checked out because
there are multiple differentcauses that sometimes need to be
addressed relatively urgently,and I know it can sometimes be a
(03:07):
bit scary getting some of thesethings investigated, but you
are absolutely better off havingthe knowledge rather than just
putting up with some of thesesymptoms that can be absolutely
debilitating, you know.
So, before I guess we get intoabnormal bleeding, let's talk
(03:27):
about what normal bleeding isduring your period.
Now, normal bleeding we expectto lose around 80 mils of blood.
Okay, and if you're thinking,well, how am I going to measure
that?
Look at whatever protectionthat you're using.
If you're using pads, tampons,a cup is really easy because
(03:50):
you'll know exactly how much isin the cup, even the period
undies, they will say whetherthey absorb.
You know two tampons, onetampon or whatever.
And just to give you a roughguide, and you might be able to
even look at the brand of theproduct that you're using
whether it's pads or tampons orundies and see it might tell you
(04:13):
on the box how much absorptionthere is, or on their website.
Generally speaking, a regulartampon will hold roughly 5 mils,
sometimes a little more, and asuper tampon roughly five mils,
sometimes a little more, and asuper tampon roughly 10 mils or
maybe 15.
Again, it depends on the brand.
So if you know that.
(04:33):
And also, pads will have.
Sort of pads are a littledifferent because you don't tend
to use them until they get full, but you may have a sense of it
anyway.
Like I guess what I would sayis if you're having to change a
super pad more than every sortof one to two hours in that time
(04:53):
frame, that's probably a bitheavy.
Same with tampons.
If you're having to changewithin one to two hours whether
it's a regular or a super, itcould be too heavy bleeding.
I've literally had women say tome they'll go to the bathroom,
they'll change their regular orsuper tampon, they will wash
(05:14):
their hands, walk out of thebathroom and they'll feel that
they need to change it again.
I've had women say to me thatthey have gotten up from a chair
with a tampon in and blood hasflowed down their legs down to
their shoes.
Even Clearly that is not anormal flow.
(05:35):
Very occasionally women mightexperience like a gush Again.
If that just happens as aone-off, it's probably not
anything too significant.
But if you're getting thisevery period, if you're getting
this day after day, severaltimes a day, that is too much
loss and there could besomething underlying it.
(05:58):
That needs to be addressed.
Other clues are the amount ofclots that are in your flow and
if you've never noticed, it'sprobably a good idea to check it
out, to look at the flow, lookat the tampon, the pad, et
cetera, whatever you're using.
I know it is a little hard inthe undies because they tend to
(06:19):
have black liners, but if youcan have a look and just see,
are you seeing lots of tinyclots, that's generally okay,
but if you're seeing clots ofthe size of a 20 cent piece an
Australian 20 cent piece that isnot okay.
That is something that needs tobe checked out.
And, yeah, it is reallyimportant to really look at this
(06:41):
and understand your menstrualhealth by being a little bit
more in touch with what'shappening to your body during
your period.
Another clue that your period istoo heavy is that you just
can't get your iron levelswithin the normal range and,
again, I see a lot of women thathave low iron consistently.
(07:06):
They really struggle to keeptheir iron levels to a range
that's going to be workable fortheir body, because we need iron
for many, many, many differentthings, including energy, and
it's horrible to be draggingyourself around with no energy
because you can't get your ironinto a decent range.
(07:28):
And that could be another signthat, even though you may not
think your periods are ultraheavy, maybe they are.
This is one of the things Ihave found over my years of
clinical practice is theheaviness of a woman's periods
is not necessarily somethingthey're discussing a lot with
their friends.
And even if you say, oh, I'vegot really heavy periods, when I
(07:49):
really drill down because ifyou're a client of mine
listening to this, you know thatin the initial consult we get
into the nitty gritty of periodflow and to really understand
what is actually happening.
What is the flow?
Normal volume of 80 mils or isit really not?
(08:09):
And whether that's whether it'stoo light, too light is
generally not super significant,unless you're trying to get
pregnant, which is notnecessarily the cohort I work
with, although I do have somewomen that I work with with
fertility that we've had somereally good success with.
But the majority of women Iwork with are in that
perimenopause or postmenopausestage.
(08:30):
So, yeah, if you're strugglingwith your iron, then another
clue, particularly if yourdoctor hasn't asked you about
your periods or if they've justsaid do you have heavy periods?
Because you may not know thatyou have heavy periods, like I
had one lady this is a few yearsago now and I asked her the
first question is you know,would you describe your periods
(08:50):
as heavy, light, normal?
And she said, oh, pretty normal.
And I said, you know, do youuse, you know, pads, tampons et
cetera?
And she said, oh, I use tampons.
And I'm like, okay, well, howmany do you use a day?
And she said 12.
(09:12):
I'm like, okay, is that regularor super Super?
So she was using 12 supertampons a day and then she was
also using two overnight on topof that and she thought that was
normal.
She thought that was normal.
So this is what I mean by like,if your doctor has asked you if
you've got heavy periods andyou're saying no, no, if you
don't know what the benchmark is, then what is normal to you
might be extreme heaviness.
So please keep that in mindwhen you're listening to this
(09:35):
podcast and thinking about yourown experience with your
menstrual flow.
This is a really importantmarker of menstrual health is
the actual amount of flow thatyou're having each cycle.
I guess another thing to pointout is the length of time of
your flow.
So what is considered normal ininverted commas is five to
(09:59):
seven days, even for some womenup to two weeks.
I mean, that's what thetextbooks say.
I don't love that.
To me that's a bit of a problem, I feel.
If that's a consistent thing, Ithink it's quite unusual to
have flow for 14 days, but fiveto seven days is generally the
norm.
(10:21):
And I will also point out thatif you are on the pill like the
contraceptive pill, not hormonesfor MHT or menopause hormone
therapy if you're on the pill,that bleed that you're having is
not technically a period, it isa pill bleed and it's very
difficult to assess themenstrual cycle from a pill
(10:43):
bleed.
So if you think there'ssomething wrong and if you want
to really get in touch with yournatural menstrual cycle, then
you may want to consider,obviously depending if you need
that pill for contraception orother purposes or if you've been
prescribed it for your doctorfor a particular reason.
That's not the situation I'mtalking about.
(11:05):
It's just people that have beenon the pill.
I see a lot of women have beenon the pill for the majority of
their lives and they just theydon't even think about it.
But yeah, if you're reallywanting to get in touch with the
health of your menstrual cycle,you may want to reconsider it,
especially if you don'tcurrently have a partner, if
you're in your forties orfifties and you're just not
quite sure where you're at inyour menstrual life cycle.
(11:27):
Before we move on to talkingabout what's causing this excess
bleeding, I did want to justmake a comment about pain,
because obviously you wouldexpect, if you've got this extra
heavy bleeding, you're going tohave fairly intense pain.
Now, some women do experiencethat and some people don't
necessarily experience that.
(11:47):
And what we know about pain?
Obviously it's very subjectiveand people have different pain
thresholds.
So just because you don't havea lot of pain doesn't mean that
you shouldn't get things checkedout.
And if you are having a lot ofpain but not a lot of flow, that
also probably needs to bechecked out.
Generally, pain is caused bythe uterus contracting trying to
(12:09):
get that flow out of it.
But yeah, sometimes, forwhatever reason and there can be
a number of different ones ifthat uterus is a little bit
overreactive or if there's a lotof clots or there's IBS,
sometimes the bowel and theuterus kind of sit pretty close
to each other so they can talkto each other through the
(12:32):
nervous system and sometimes, ifyou have IBS, that means you
can have fairly painful periodsand vice versa.
You have painful periods thatcan often give you diarrhea and
things like that Not necessarilyin like a technical IBS, but
still it can happen.
Let's talk a little bit aboutwhat possible causes there can
(12:52):
be Now for women that aren't inperimenopause.
Often that might be somethinglike endometriosis.
Sometimes PCOS can cause that.
They're probably the two mostcommon causes, but there can
also be other things that causethis.
So it definitely needs to belooked at by a GP, because often
(13:14):
when we're looking atinvestigating that type of
bleeding, you need to have apelvic ultrasound and that's
something that only really a GPor a gynecologist can authorize.
So yeah, it is important to getit checked out.
But for women in perimenopauseit can be obviously influenced
(13:35):
by the hormonal changes thathappen in perimenopause.
There can also be things likefibroids and adenomyosis that
can really cause this heavybleeding.
And again, there are somethings we can do in natural
medicine to help address thatand, in fact, just generally
(13:56):
with heavy periods.
We have a number of fantasticherbal medicines that can really
help reduce period flow.
I'm not going to talk aboutthose on this podcast, because I
do really believe that when itcomes to this part of our health
, our uterine health, I reallydo feel that you need to see a
(14:18):
practitioner and not justexperiment with herbs you know,
over the counter or whatever totry and manage it on your own.
It really does deserve a properinvestigation.
But just so that you do know,if you go and see your
healthcare professional and theytell you that it is fibroids or
(14:39):
it is adenomyosis or it'ssomething like that, that once
you have that sort of diagnosis,then that's something that you
can work with a naturopath toget some good relief of your
symptoms.
Now, sometimes women areadvised to have surgical
intervention with regard to that, and that is absolutely a
(15:01):
discussion for you and yourhealthcare professional, your
medical healthcare professional.
That is beyond my scope ofpractice, but, yeah, it's good
to be armed with as muchinformation as possible about
your body.
So, yes, so there are someherbal medicines we can use, but
, as always in natural medicine,we want to get to the
(15:22):
underlying cause.
So if it is hormonal imbalance,then we want to look at what
your hormones are doing and thenmanage that, and there's a few
different ways that we do that.
There are dietary measures thatwe can take because when we are
looking at, for example,hormone imbalance and we know
women in perimenopause havehormone imbalances that's part
(15:44):
of the process.
So we can help manage thatusing liver, supporting foods
like our cruciferous veggies, somaking sure you're getting lots
of veggies like your broccoli,your cauliflower, kale, brussels
sprouts, spinach, garlic, onion, obviously if those foods are
(16:05):
tolerated by you.
Just a little caveat If you dohave thyroid issues, you need to
cook those foods really wellrather than having them raw only
if you have a thyroid problem.
So we want to really helpsupport the liver to do its job,
to detoxify and clear hormonesso that we can balance out those
(16:25):
hormones naturally.
If you are holding excess weight, then it's a really good idea
to work on managing that, tobring yourself into a healthy
weight range.
As you know, that's somethingthat I love to support women
doing and that is somethingthat's done also with a focus on
(16:47):
perimenopause management andpost menopause management.
So definitely getting as yourbody into as healthy a state as
possible through diet, throughmaking sure you're eating the
right foods to support the rightorgans, if you like.
I did mention liver, but also,you know, lots of antioxidants.
(17:09):
Brightly colored berries,fruits and veggies are going to
give you lots of goodantioxidants.
That does also help withdetoxification.
Also, just making sure you'regetting enough protein, enough
omega-3 fatty acids, et cetera.
To know whether you're gettingenough protein, the general rule
is that it's one gram for everykilo of body weight that you
(17:32):
have.
Now, for some people we want togo a little higher than that,
for some people maybe a littlelower.
So again, talking to ahealthcare professional can be
very beneficial to make surethat what you're doing is
actually going to work well foryou and it's actually going to
get you the result you want inas fast a time as possible for
(17:54):
you.
In what you're looking for andI can't stress that enough I see
some women that have doneextreme dieting to lose weight,
to lose weight in a very shortperiod of time when they haven't
really needed to.
We want, ideally, sustainableweight loss, and sustainable
weight loss looks like around0.5 to one kilo a week, not, you
(18:17):
know, losing extreme amounts ofweight over long periods of
time.
That is not over short periodsof time.
Rather, that is not ideal andthat really helps to trigger the
yo-yo effect where you're justgoing to put that weight all
back on in a very short amountof time, and usually more as
well.
I've talked about the yo-yoeffect before in previous
(18:39):
podcasts.
You can probably search for itand I've explained the actual
science behind the yo-yo effect,what goes on in your body
biologically.
So let's see what else can wedo.
Obviously, keeping hydrated isreally important, making sure
you're eating lots of iron-richfoods.
And when you're eating thoseiron-rich foods and I'm not
necessarily just talking aboutred meat, because I know that's
(18:59):
what everyone thinks of whenthey think of iron-rich foods,
but really dark leafy greenswith vitamin C, because vitamin
C aids absorption, becausevitamin C aids absorption.
And the great thing is natureprovides us with vitamin C in a
lot of those iron-rich foodslike your leafy greens, nuts and
seeds, things like that.
(19:20):
Avoiding having your iron-richfoods around tannin-containing
beverages, so dark beverages, socola, tea, coffee, red wine
they will help to block youriron receptors so you don't
absorb that iron very well.
So ideally you would have youriron rich meal and then none of
(19:43):
those iron blocking kind ofdrinks until the ideal is two
hours afterwards.
So there's a hot tip for you,and same with your iron
supplements If you're havingbreakfast, have your iron
supplement and then having acoffee, you've just kind of
wasted your money.
(20:03):
So I would always recommendhaving your iron supplements
either at lunchtime or at night,with food, away from any of
those dark colored beverages.
Let me think if there's anythingelse.
No, I think.
Oh, let's do a little summary.
So I've talked about what isnormal bleeding and what is
abnormal.
So knowing that and having thatinformation is necessary.
(20:27):
So once you've realized thatperhaps your bleeding is
unusually heavy, then probablythe next best thing to do is to
have a discussion with your GPto make sure that no other
referral is required, no otherinvestigations are required, or
if they are, then great, getthem done.
(20:48):
And then if you're getting toldnothing's wrong with you or
you're getting told, oh, this isjust normal part of
perimenopause, just put up withit, all of that sort of thing
then you may get benefit fromreaching out either to me or to
a naturopath or nutritionist inyour local area to get some
(21:11):
support and help.
So I hope this episode has beenhelpful.
I'd love to hear from you tosee what your thoughts are.
Is this something that'shappened to you?
Do you feel like you've beengaslit a little bit, or that you
didn't realize how heavy yourperiods actually were.
This is all, really.
I think women, we just don't getenough information about our
(21:33):
bodies and how they work, and soanything I can do to help
support women to get information, I am all for.
So please do let me know ifthere's other topics that you
would like me to cover.
Anyway, it's been great havingyou listening today.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
I'll be back on Thursday with Qand A.
Thanks so much for joining metoday on the Ageless and Awesome
(21:56):
podcast.
If you liked today's episode,please make sure you click the
little plus button if you're onApple podcasts, or the follow
button if you're on Spotify, sothat you get each new episode
delivered to you every week.
If you like free stuff, thenhead to the show notes and click
the link to receive my freeRadiant Reset Hormone Detox
Guide for Perimenopausal Women.
(22:18):
Or, if you'd like to continuethe discussion, head over to
Instagram and DM me atsuzygardenwellness.
I'd love to connect with you.
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