Abundant menstruation
"Menorrhagia" is a medical term that indicates a particularly abundant and abnormal menstrual blood loss; the haemorrhage can also extend beyond the physiological term of the menstrual period, which in the presence of menorrhagia - in addition to being more intense - is often even more painful.
Menorrhagia should not be confused with metrorrhagia: both conditions involve hypermenorrhea, therefore abundant blood loss, but, while menorrhagia coincides with menstrual flow, metrorrhagia occurs between one menstruation and another. A woman could still be affected. from both conditions, that is from menometrorrhagia, and in this case the disorder requires more than ever a prompt gynecological diagnosis.
Causes
Menorrhagia can be caused by several factors: hormonal alterations, blood clotting disorders, pathologies of the female genital system, introduction of foreign bodies into the vagina, infections and pelvic congestion (caused, for example, by constipation).
Some of these menorrhagia-related factors deserve further study.
First of all, the alteration of the hormonal balance can create disturbances that affect the menstrual cycle: in general, hormonal changes are caused by malfunctions in the ovary, with variations in the physiological cyclical process of growth and involution of the mucosa during the menstrual cycle. The ovary, producing an overabundant quantity of estrogenic hormones, could cause menorrhagia: the cause of the estrogenic alteration can be primary or secondary, as a consequence of an excessive stimulation by the pituitary. Not surprisingly, clinical examinations of women suffering from menorrhagia often show a "high amount of estrogenic hormones in the blood and urine; however, a lack of progesterone was found. In other women, the hormonal alteration is inverse," that is, there is not an overproduction of hormones, but a deficiency of the same. In the first case, the excess of estrogen involves not only menorrhagia, but also an increase in the volume of the breast and external genitalia; in the second condition, hormonal deficiency causes a reduction in the volume of the breasts, the uterus and the labia minora of the vagina.
Menorrhagia is enhanced if, to these factors, capillary fragility and alterations in the thyroid and adrenal glands are also added.
The mechanism that coordinates menorrhagia still remains a not entirely clear condition.
Neonatal menorrhagia
Newborns can also experience vaginal discharge, which cannot be associated, however, with menorrhagia: probably, the cause of the discharge lies, once again, in the hormonal alteration. The estrogenic modulations of the mother can affect the daughter, causing a reactivity of the tissues that it reflects with blood loss in the newborn. The event, however, is not pathological.
Menorrhagia in puberty
Menorrhagia often occurs even during puberty, since the "endocrine axis of the new woman has yet to regulate itself: in the first menstruation, more than real" menorrhagia "we speak of pubertal hemorrhagic metropathy.
Even the introduction, voluntary or not, of foreign bodies into the vagina can cause internal lesions of varying degrees, accompanied by blood loss that can sometimes coincide with the menstrual cycle. This facilitates, however, bacterial infection, which occurs it spreads vaginally causing pain, discomfort, irritation, redness and bleeding.
Even some pathologies affecting the female genital tract can cause menorrhagia: uterine fibroids, endometriosis, ovarian tumors, polyps. In this case, menorrhagia is the first light turned on by the body to make it clear that the physiological mechanisms are jammed.
Diagnosis
In the presence of menorrhagia, the specialist visit is absolutely essential, right from the first symptoms, not only to resolve heavy menstruation, but also to ascertain the absence of possible pelvic pathologies. The diagnosis is important to establish the causes that cause the disorder. : in general, an endometrial biopsy is used if the gynecologist finds doubtful problems.
Therapy
The therapy must be aimed at blocking the bleeding: considering that the main causes that trigger metrorrhagia refer to hormonal modulation, the administration of progestins could be a good solution. If, on the other hand, metrorrhagia is a consequence of a pathology affecting the ovary, the disease must be remedied first, the resolution of which will consequently determine the healing of the menorrhagia itself.
Summary
To fix the concepts
I disturb
Menorrhagia
Description
Particularly abundant and abnormal bleeding during menstruation (80ml of blood)
Aftermath
Pain, anemia
Difference with metrorrhagia
Metrorrhagia is a "bleeding that occurs between one period and the next."
Menorrhagia is a "hypermenorrhea during menstrual flow
Causes
Hormonal changes, blood clotting disorders, pathologies of the female genital system, introduction of foreign bodies into the vagina, infections, pelvic congestion (caused, for example, by constipation)
Diagnosis
Gynecological specialist visit with possible endometrial biopsy
Therapy
Hormonal modulation
Resolution of the triggering causes (eg pathologies): it follows the healing of the metrorrhagia
