A Complete Guide To Managing Irregular Periods!

With the advent of the 21st century and the accompanying sedentary lifestyle, women’s period cycles have increasingly started becoming irregular. If you think you are included in the list, this is the place to get a few facts cleared up.

Periods are deemed ‘irregular’ when the cycle stretches to more than 35 days instead of the normal 28, or bleeding occurs before 28 days. The scientific name of irregular periods is ‘Oligomenorrhea’. Read on to find out causes, symptoms and cures.

Causes:
Periods become irregular due to a lot of factors, like:

1. Changes in contraceptive methods: A switch in contraception, like say using a combination of progestin and estrogen pills in place of progestin pills alone.
2. Hormonal imbalances: During or slightly after/before menopause, the levels of estrogen and progesterone decline in the female body leading to irregular periods.
3. Endurance exercises aka aerobics: These exercises, built to increase your heart rate, can put pressure on lower-body parts like the stomach and uterus and lead to irregular periods.

Symptoms:
Following are the symptoms which will help you detect if you have irregular periods:

1. Appearance of clots more than 2.5 cm in diameter.
2. Change in rates of blood flow, with flow being heavy or fast some days and slow and light other days of the cycle.
3. Less than 11 or more than 13 periods per year.

Treatment:
Irregular periods are treated in any of the many ways listed below:

1. Weight loss: Weight loss, either by gymming or surgically, cures irregular periods by reducing the amount of testosterone the body needs to produce, facilitating ovulation.
2. Thyroid treatment: Radioactive iodine therapy, surgery and/or medication are used to treat thyroid disorders that sometimes are underlying causes of irregular periods.
3. Psychological counseling: Periods often become irregular due to stress, emotional trauma and depression. Counseling treats these, and helps treat irregular periods in the process.

Periods become irregular due to whole gamut of both lifestyle as well as physical and emotional reasons, and help is always at hand. Check out the symptoms you have and their meaning, and quickly book an appointment with your doctor. In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!