Heavy periods: spiritual meaning and emotional causes

What heavy periods are

Heavy periods, or heavy menstrual bleeding (menorrhagia), means losing so much blood during a period that it affects daily life. Signs include needing to change a pad or tampon every one to two hours, using two types of protection at once, bleeding through to clothes or bedding, passing large clots, or periods that last longer than seven days. Heavy periods are common, and for many people they have always been that way.

Often no cause is found. Known causes include fibroids and polyps in the womb, endometriosis and adenomyosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, an underactive thyroid, bleeding disorders such as von Willebrand disease, some medicines such as blood thinners, a copper coil, and the hormonal changes of the years before the menopause. Heavy periods can also be painful (see period pain), and the regular blood loss can lead to iron-deficiency anaemia.

A doctor will usually ask about your periods, check for anaemia with a blood test, and may arrange an examination or an ultrasound scan. Effective treatments exist: a hormonal coil, the contraceptive pill or other hormones, tranexamic acid, anti-inflammatory painkillers, iron supplements, and, when needed, procedures to remove fibroids or polyps or to thin the lining of the womb.

The emotional meaning of heavy periods

Blood carries life through the body. Spiritually, bleeding that is heavier and longer than it should be, with blood that does not clot as it should, is often linked to a loss you cannot hold back: a feeling that something is slipping away from you.

A loss you cannot control

The flow does not stop when you want it to. This can mirror something in your life that escapes you, a situation where you feel you no longer have a hold. The question is what you feel is running out of your hands right now.

Feelings about having children

Heavy periods are linked to the question of children. For some, it is a difficulty accepting the idea of having children. For others, it is a great loss of joy about not being able to have them, whether because of infertility or because contraception is being used to avoid a pregnancy for now. These feelings can be mixed and hard to say out loud, including to yourself. There is no right answer to this question, and none of it means that your body is failing or being punished. If you are grieving a child you have not had, that grief deserves care and room.

Your place as a woman

You may feel you are losing your place as a woman, or searching for who you are. The spiritual interpretation speaks of two sides of yourself that want to meet and be reconciled, which it calls the inner angel and the inner devil: the part of you that does what is expected, and the part that wants something else. What do you really want?

Tenderness, pleasure and the couple

Heavy periods can also raise questions about your needs. How can you meet your need for tenderness and pleasure? Is there a situation in your relationship that you can no longer bear, and that you need to change? Sometimes the loss that cannot be stopped points to something that has been tolerated for too long.

A gentler way to hold it

The aim is not to blame yourself for heavy periods. Fibroids, hormones, the thyroid and blood clotting all play real roles, and the warning signs above need a doctor. The emotional perspective invites you to look at what you feel you are losing, and at what you want.

• Name what is slipping away. Notice which part of your life feels out of your control, and say it.
• Be honest about children. Let yourself feel what you truly feel, whether it is wanting, not wanting, waiting or grieving.
• Make peace with where you are. Your situation today is a stage, not a verdict on your worth as a woman.
• Listen to both sides of you. Give the part of you that wants something different a chance to speak.
• Ask for tenderness. Tell your partner, or someone close, what you need.
• Look at what you can no longer bear. One honest change in a relationship can bring a great deal of relief.