"Like so many symptoms that occur at this time of life, post-menopausal bleeding is often related to the same lifestyle issues that contribute to weight gain, emotional stress, and hormonal imbalance. Sudden spotting or bleeding that is benign is your body’s way of telling you to inventory the demands in your life and the support you are giving yourself."
And:
"Any time a woman has gone 12 successive months with no period and then bleeds again — no matter how slight or brief — the flow is considered to be post-menopausal bleeding. Up to 20–30% of menopausal women experience this.
"While it is far more common to experience post-menopausal bleeding due to shifting hormones, the less likely scenario is that abnormal cells are developing in the uterus. This can be a symptom of a minor abnormality like hyperplasia of the uterus, or of the more severe issue of uterine cancer. The good news is that all of these scenarios are highly treatable. But it is crucial for the woman whose situation needs more intervention to be identified as early as possible.
More often than not, proper evaluation of post-menopausal bleeding concludes there is nothing for the patient to worry about and no further intervention is needed. At Women to Women, we see benign post-menopausal bleeding result from the use of new or different HRT, nutrient deficiencies, drastic weight loss, extreme stress, or emotional trauma. But the only way to know for sure, and to rest easy, is to have a proper evaluation."
I'll skip the parts about HRT since they don't apply. But do go read more, since it talks about how nutritional deficiencies, weight loss or emotional stress can affect your levels of estrogen and cause this sort of reaction.
Here's some information about endometrial hyperplasia, and the possible grades:
And should you be diagnosed with uterine cancer, here's some information about it from the Mayo as well. Be sure to click on the links at the left that talk about symptoms, tests and diagnoses, and treatment and drugs:
Many things mentioned here are benign, and everything mentioned here is treatable, especially at an early stage. But you are worried, and you shouldn't have to sit and wait and sit and wait for offices to talk to one another just to schedule your appointment! Please call the ob/gyn office and see if you can hurry them along. They are busy during this time of year because everyone's trying to get in on the last weeks of this year's insurance premiums, but you have an issue that is concerning you, and you're not going to be able to relax about it until you do. (I would not be above bribing the office with holiday cookies if I had to!)
Comment Reply
Deb,
Thanks for your reply. OK, so we can eliminate any effect from HRT.
With that in mind, here's a really good page on post-menopausal bleeding from womentowomen.com:
http://www.womentowomen.com/menopause/postmenopausalbleeding.aspx
Some of the categories are:
From that site:
"Like so many symptoms that occur at this time of life, post-menopausal bleeding is often related to the same lifestyle issues that contribute to weight gain, emotional stress, and hormonal imbalance. Sudden spotting or bleeding that is benign is your body’s way of telling you to inventory the demands in your life and the support you are giving yourself."
And:
"Any time a woman has gone 12 successive months with no period and then bleeds again — no matter how slight or brief — the flow is considered to be post-menopausal bleeding. Up to 20–30% of menopausal women experience this.
"While it is far more common to experience post-menopausal bleeding due to shifting hormones, the less likely scenario is that abnormal cells are developing in the uterus. This can be a symptom of a minor abnormality like hyperplasia of the uterus, or of the more severe issue of uterine cancer. The good news is that all of these scenarios are highly treatable. But it is crucial for the woman whose situation needs more intervention to be identified as early as possible.
More often than not, proper evaluation of post-menopausal bleeding concludes there is nothing for the patient to worry about and no further intervention is needed. At Women to Women, we see benign post-menopausal bleeding result from the use of new or different HRT, nutrient deficiencies, drastic weight loss, extreme stress, or emotional trauma. But the only way to know for sure, and to rest easy, is to have a proper evaluation."
I'll skip the parts about HRT since they don't apply. But do go read more, since it talks about how nutritional deficiencies, weight loss or emotional stress can affect your levels of estrogen and cause this sort of reaction.
Here's some information about endometrial hyperplasia, and the possible grades:
http://www.womentowomen.com/menopause/uterinehyperplasia.aspx
Here's the Mayo Clinic's information on uterine polyps, in case that is part of the problem:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/uterine-polyps/DS00699/DSECTION=tests-and-diagnosis
And here's our page on ovarian cysts:
https://www.empowher.com/media/reference/ovarian-cyst#definition
And should you be diagnosed with uterine cancer, here's some information about it from the Mayo as well. Be sure to click on the links at the left that talk about symptoms, tests and diagnoses, and treatment and drugs:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/endometrial-cancer/DS00306
Many things mentioned here are benign, and everything mentioned here is treatable, especially at an early stage. But you are worried, and you shouldn't have to sit and wait and sit and wait for offices to talk to one another just to schedule your appointment! Please call the ob/gyn office and see if you can hurry them along. They are busy during this time of year because everyone's trying to get in on the last weeks of this year's insurance premiums, but you have an issue that is concerning you, and you're not going to be able to relax about it until you do. (I would not be above bribing the office with holiday cookies if I had to!)
Will you come back and update us?
December 2, 2009 - 10:15amThis Comment
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