Heavy Periods: How to Care for Your Daughter

Heavy periods means that a girl loses a lot of blood during her periods. This can happen because:

• bleeding is very heavy during periods

• periods last longer than normal

Girls with heavy periods can get anemia (too few red blood cells).

If needed, there are ways to treat heavy periods. Help your daughter follow these instructions.

• Be sure your daughter follows the health care provider's recommendations for taking any medicines.

• Help your daughter to:

  • track her periods on a calendar or smartphone app

  • eat a healthy, well-balanced diet 

  • follow any changes in diet or exercise that the health care provider recommends

• Girls with heavy periods can still get pregnant if they have sex. Talk to your daughter about using condoms to protect against pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs, also called sexually transmitted diseases or STDs).

• Call the health care provider or log in to your daughter's electronic health record (EHR) to get any test results.

• Follow up as instructed by your health care provider.

Your daughter:

• Has any of the following:

  • periods that last longer than 8 days 

  • very heavy periods that soak through a pad or tampon every hour

  • a period more than every 24 days or less than every 38 days

  • bleeding between periods

• Has signs of anemia, such as having headaches or being tired, pale, or dizzy

What causes heavy periods? Some of the things that cause heavy periods are:

• changing hormone levels in the first few years after a girl starts getting her period

• hormone problems from medical conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome 

• being overweight

• medical conditions that cause easy bleeding

• fibroids or other growths in the uterus

How are heavy periods treated? Treatment for heavy periods depends on what's causing it. It may include:

• in girls who just started getting their periods, waiting to see if they get lighter

• a recommendation to lose weight through changes in diet and increasing exercise

• medicines that can balance hormones, such as the birth control pill ("the Pill"); also a birth control shot, a birth control implant, or an IUD

• iron supplements for anemia