What is it?
Heavy menstrual bleeding (menorrhagia) means losing enough blood during your period that it affects your physical, social or emotional life. Around one in four women experience it at some stage. Causes include hormonal changes, fibroids, polyps, adenomyosis, some medicines and bleeding disorders, and sometimes no cause is found.
Common symptoms
- Changing a pad or tampon every one to two hours
- Passing clots larger than a 50-cent coin
- Periods lasting more than seven days
- Flooding through clothes or bedding
- Feeling tired, dizzy or short of breath from low iron
How it's diagnosed
Dr Saadie will ask about your periods and general health and examine you. Tests may include a blood count and iron studies, a pelvic ultrasound, and sometimes a hysteroscopy (a look inside the uterus with a fine camera) or a sample of the uterine lining.
Treatment options
Treatment depends on the cause and whether you want children in future:
- tranexamic acid or anti-inflammatory medicines taken during your period
- hormonal options such as the pill or progestogens
- a Mirena IUD, which reduces bleeding for most women
- iron replacement if you're iron deficient
- endometrial ablation, a day procedure that treats the lining of the uterus, for women who have completed their family
- removal of polyps or fibroids, or hysterectomy if other treatments haven't worked
Dr Saadie performs endometrial ablation, myomectomy and hysterectomy when conservative treatment hasn't helped.
When to see a doctor
See your GP if your periods are affecting your daily life, you have bleeding between periods or after sex, or you have any bleeding after menopause.
To see Dr Saadie, ask your GP for a referral, then request an appointment or call (02) 9894 9225.
More information
- Healthdirect: Heavy periods
- Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care: Heavy Menstrual Bleeding Clinical Care Standard
Other conditions
- Endometriosis
- Fibroids
- Prolapse and incontinence
- Cervical screening and colposcopy
- Ovarian cysts
- Menopause
- All gynaecology care
General information only, not a substitute for advice about your own health. Updated November 2026.