'It's not just an inconvenience': We've underestimated the health impacts of heavy periods

Michelle Alston slept off the worst days of her menstrual periods in the school nurse's office from the age of 12-13 onwards, battling severe pain as she bled through period products. She stated, "I was taught that this is just normal. This is just something that you have to learn to cope with."

She felt weak and failed to cope with her periods as well as her peers seemed to. It was not until she reached her early 40s that she learned her periods were unusually heavy. Doctors call bleeding during periods that interferes with quality of life heavy menstrual bleeding, and it is a serious medical problem. Studies of populations from around the world estimate that between 10 and 30% of reproductive-aged women experience heavy menstrual bleeding. Due to under-reporting and a general lack of understanding, studies suggest it may actually occur in half of all reproductive-aged women. Heavy menstrual bleeding can also signify other health problems and have serious consequences when unchecked, such as anaemia. A search of PubMed for "menstrual blood" yielded just 400 publications in the last decade, while publications for "semen" number over 15,000. Jackie Maybin, a gynaecologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, stated, "Women are probably owed years, if not decades, of research."