What Does It Mean to Stop Menstrating at Menopause and Start Again 10 Years Later
Postmenopausal Haemorrhage
Postmenopausal bleeding is vaginal haemorrhage that occurs a year or more than after your concluding menstrual period. It can exist a symptom of vaginal dryness, polyps (noncancerous growths) or other changes in your reproductive system. In about 10% of women, bleeding after menopause is a sign of uterine cancer.
Overview
What is postmenopausal bleeding?
Postmenopausal bleeding is haemorrhage that occurs after menopause. Menopause is a stage in a adult female'southward life (around historic period 51) when reproductive hormones driblet and her monthly menstrual periods stop. Vaginal bleeding that occurs more than a year after a woman'due south last period isn't normal. The bleeding can be lite (spotting) or heavy.
Postmenopausal bleeding is normally due to benign (noncancerous) gynecological conditions such as endometrial polyps. Merely for about 10% of women, bleeding after menopause is a sign of uterine cancer (endometrial cancer). Uterine cancer is the almost common type of reproductive cancer (more common than ovarian or cervical cancers.) Talk to your healthcare provider if yous experience whatever bleeding subsequently menopause.
Who is more likely to have postmenopausal bleeding?
Anyone can have vaginal haemorrhage, especially during perimenopause. Perimenopause, the time leading upward to menopause, normally occurs betwixt ages 40 and 50. Information technology'due south the phase when a woman's hormone levels and periods start to modify.
How mutual is postmenopausal haemorrhage?
Postmenopausal bleeding occurs in well-nigh 10% of women over 55.
Symptoms and Causes
What causes postmenopausal haemorrhage?
The well-nigh common causes of haemorrhage or spotting after menopause include:
- Endometrial or vaginal cloudburst (lining of the uterus or vagina becomes thin and dry).
- Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) (estrogen and progesterone supplements that decrease some menopausal symptoms).
- Uterine cancer or endometrial cancer (cancer in the lining of the uterus).
- Endometrial hyperplasia (the lining of the uterus gets too thick and can contain abnormal cells).
- Uterine polyps (growths in the uterus).
Other causes can include:
- Cervical cancer (cancer in the cervix).
- Cervicitis or endometritis (infection or inflammation in the neck or uterus).
- Bleeding from other areas, nearby, in the bladder or rectum or haemorrhage from the peel of the vulva (outside near the vagina).
Diagnosis and Tests
How do you know the cause of postmenopausal bleeding?
- Identifying the cause of the bleeding tin include the following:
- Examination by your provider of the vagina and neck.
- Pap smear to check the cervical cells.
- Ultrasound, ordinarily using a vaginal approach, which may include the utilise of saline to make it easier to see any uterine polyps.
- Biopsy of the endometrium or uterus. In this procedure, your healthcare provider gently slides a small, harbinger-like tube into the uterus to collect cells to run across if they are abnormal. This is washed in the role and can cause come up cramping.
Direction and Treatment
How is postmenopausal bleeding treated?
Treatment for postmenopausal bleeding depends on its cause. Medication and surgery are the most common treatments.
Medications include:
- Antibiotics can treat virtually infections of the cervix or uterus.
- Estrogen may assistance haemorrhage due to vaginal dryness. You tin apply estrogen directly to your vagina as a foam, ring or insertable tablet. Systemic estrogen therapy may come up as a pill or patch. When estrogen therapy is systemic, it ways the hormone travels throughout the body.
- Progestin is a synthetic class of the hormone progesterone. It can treat endometrial hyperplasia by triggering the uterus to shed its lining. You may receive progestin as a pill, shot, foam or intrauterine device (IUD).
Surgeries include:
- Hysteroscopy is a procedure to examine your cervix and uterus with a photographic camera. Your healthcare provider inserts a hysteroscope (thin, lighted tube) into your vagina to remove polyps or other abnormal growths that may be causing haemorrhage. This can be done in the office for diagnosis. To remove any growths, hysteroscopy is oft done in the operating room nether general anesthesia.
- Dilation and curettage (D&C) is a procedure to sample the lining and contents of the uterus. Your healthcare provider may perform a D&C with a hysteroscopy. A D&C can treat some types of endometrial hyperplasia.
- Hysterectomy is a surgery to remove your uterus and cervix. You may demand a hysterectomy if you have uterine cancer. Your healthcare provider tin tell you lot about the different approaches to uterus removal. Some procedures are minimally invasive, so they employ very small cuts (incisions).
Living With
When should I contact my doctor?
Contact your healthcare provider if you feel vaginal bleeding:
- More a twelvemonth after your last menstrual menstruation.
- More a year afterward starting hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
A note from Cleveland Clinic
It's normal to have irregular vaginal bleeding in the years leading up to menopause. But if y'all have bleeding more than a year afterwards your last menstrual flow, it's time to see your healthcare provider. It could be the effect of a elementary infection or beneficial growths. But in rare cases, haemorrhage could be a sign of uterine cancer.
Source: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21549-postmenopausal-bleeding
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