Amount of blood loss - Is this severe?

[daguerreotype.livejournal.com]

Hi, guys. Just a quick question..

I currently use a menstrual cup (Mooncup), but I've noticed that on my current period my cup has been overflowing with blood every hour, normally it is never this much. That's over 30ml of blood p/h, all day and night, it's a little troublesome, but my cramps aren't too bad at the moment, I'm only on my second day of my bleed so far.

Is this anything to be worried about? It just seems like.. an awful lot of blood. Is it?

Thank you! :)

Comments

[djonma.livejournal.com]

A cup of blood an hour is definitely something to see a doctor about - just to be safe.

Do you feel ill at all? Dizzy, faint?

When I was filling a cup and overflowing in under an hour recently, I was given Tranexamic acid to help plug the clots so I didn't bleed hugely.
(I don't actually know how well it worked as not long after my period went MIA and is still MIA since December, so I can't say how well it worked, sorry)

[daguerreotype.livejournal.com]

I feel a little weak & unstable but no dizziness or fainting yet. Luckily I don't have much to do today so I'm able to just stay put for a bit. :)

I will see if I can get a doctor appointment soon, I wasn't sure if maybe it was normal bleeding & I had just been a little misinformed, so i had to ask.

Thanks for replying! :)

[djonma.livejournal.com]

It *could* be normal, just could be a freaky heavy period, but it is a lot of blood, so getting it checked out is definitely important.

[vortal-cord.livejournal.com]

According to google, a normal pad or tampon holds 5ml of blood, so if you're surpassing that by six times each hour, you definitely need to get to the ER. If you have any pads or tampons left over it might be worth using them just this one time so you can have a more "standardized" measure you can give the doctors (or paramedics). Going through six pads in one hour will get you much prompter (and more accurate) medical attention) than going through one menstrual cup an hour, especially since most providers have never even heard of a menstrual cup before.

[daguerreotype.livejournal.com]

That makes sense, you'd just think that using a cup would be a more obvious/accurate measure of telling the ER how much blood you're passing. Sadly I have neither tampons or pads right now, but I'll see what I can get a hold of. Thanks! :)

[misspaigeb.livejournal.com]

I think 30mL an hour is as accurate as you're gonna get I honestly wouldn't worry about that if I were you, but I would go to the ER or at the very least Urgent care or something. If you have a regular doctor they might have a nurse's line to talk to and ask if they think it's necessary, but that seems like a lot of blood if it's not normal for you.

[daguerreotype.livejournal.com]

I will definitely get in touch with my doctor, thanks. :)

[vortal-cord.livejournal.com]

Hopefully the OP will have better luck than I did. I was laughed at and not taken seriously by two different doctors for "measuring" my blood. Of course, they were both males who had never heard of a menstrual cup, but I had horrible luck giving scientific measurements. =/

[theladykatarina.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh, I'm so sorry. That sounds humiliating and so alienating! And it just makes no sense -- why would a more precise measurement be laughable, when "2 pads-worth" or whatever is so inconsistent among pads/people?!

I'm so angry on your behalf, I could just spit! Seriously, how rude and just plain ignorant of them :(

[frolicnaked.livejournal.com]

For whatever it's worth, I've been dismissed or disbelieved by medical providers while measuring with pads, measuring with tampons, and measuring with cups. With cups, the biggest trouble I've had was that a number of providers were only familiar with alarming amounts in terms of pads/tampons per hour; they didn't really know what to do with a millitres per hour stat. Equally problematically, I've had providers say to me, "Sometimes, we can think we're soaking a tampon when we're really not. The outside might be red, but we haven't really bled all that much."

[fallconsmate.livejournal.com]

if you sneeze and it makes an exit? the tampon is full. idiot providers. bleh.

[frolicnaked.livejournal.com]

Yep. That was about the point where I started offering to bring in the blood-soaked menstrual products so I could show them what I meant by "saturated." ;)

[neko-loliighoul.livejournal.com]

I agree.

[frolicnaked.livejournal.com]

If it's not something for which you've previously been evaluated, then yes, I'd seek medical attention sooner rather than later. It could be just a random Uterine Wonk occurrence, but there's enough fluid loss to put it into "better safe than sorry" territory.

Good luck!

[quietisgod.livejournal.com]

When I first started using the cup I noticed I was losing a lot more blood than I ever had before and looked it up-apparently the cup has a minor sucking action which can make some people lose blood a bit quicker but on the upside usually results in a quicker period.I found mine went from 5 days to about 2!
There can also be a bit of a 'detox' kinda crisis-after switching from regular pads and tampons with the chemicals etc that are present in them to a cup-where your womb takes a couple of months to properly empty out all its contents completely and naturally...if that makes any sense.

[ah-cha.livejournal.com]

stupid question, but it helped for me when i was freaking out -
are you definitely putting the cup in right? does it open up all the way inside, and is sitting perfectly the right way up? i thought mine was filling up super fast all the way for a while then i realised it just wasn't opening right inside me and just seemed to overflow