Health Guide

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Article Content:

Normal blood loss during menstrual cycle is about 50-80 ml and usually do not exceed 100 ml. Menorrhagia is excess menstrual bleeding for longer duration without any alteration in the menstrual cycle i.e. menstrual cycle is unaltered but duration of menstrual bleeding and quantity of menstrual blood loss is increased. Menorrhagia is not a disease itself but a symptom.

The underlying cause of menorrhagia is difficult to detect. But the causes of menorrhagia can be grouped as (a) causes due to general diseases (b) due to local cause in pelvis (c) due to endocrine disturbance and (d) hormonal causes.

Diagnosis of menorrhagia:

1. Finding out the cause of menorrhagia may be very difficult. The patient of menorrhagia must be investigated carefully due to the difficulty in detection of the underlying cause of menorrhagia and its symptoms. History of the patient should be taken carefully to find out the onset, duration, quantity of blood loss, the character of blood and the cyclical feature of menstrual cycle. Any preceding history like recent delivery, abortion or IUCD (intra-uterine contraceptive device) should be elicited.
2. A full gynecological examination should be done, which should include thyroid profile, blood count and bi-manual pelvic examination.
3. A diagnostic curettage should be done to obtain samples for histological examination.
4. Ultrasound examination of should be done to exclude extra uterine pathology.
5. Instead of all the above investigations, if nothing comes out as the cause of menorrhagia, a hysterosalphingogram should be done and it may reveal some cause like polyp, fibroid etc.