A normal female of childbearing age generally experiences vaginal bleeding about every 28 days. This is known as a menstrual cycle. It is the result of the uterus shedding its lining because no egg has been fertilized. A menstrual period usually lasts five to seven days. In some cases, however, women suffer menstrual irregularity, which means that something about the occurrence of their menstrual periods deviates from normal.
There are several things that can happen with a woman’s menstrual cycle that can be considered irregular. In some instances, women are not pregnant but they do not have a have a period for one or more months. Other cases involve women who bleed more often than they should. Menstrual irregularity can involve bleeding that occurs off schedule, meaning that instead of one period beginning when it should, longer amounts of time elapse. There are also instances when the volume of bleeding is heavier or lighter than normal.
Women’s bodies differ. What affects one woman may not affect another. For this reason, it is not easy to highlight the exact causes of menstrual irregularity without greater detail about the person who has the problem. There are many factors that have been found to cause these sorts of problems. A factor that may cause bleeding to be abnormally heavy in one woman may cause another woman to completely miss her period.
Menstrual irregularity is sometimes accompanied by pain. This is especially true when women experience abnormally heavy or long periods. Pain may cause some women to worry.
Even those who do not experience pain may find themselves worried about the variance of their periods. In many cases, the problems can be corrected and are not a result of a serious illness. In some cases, however, menstrual irregularity can be a sign of an underlying problem that needs to be addressed.
Sometimes menstrual irregularity can be caused by lifestyle factors such as smoking, stress, or alcoholism. Changing these circumstances can sometimes resolve the problems without requiring any further action. Menstrual irregularity can also be caused by common health conditions. These include diabetes, chlamydia, and thyroid disease. Treatment of these conditions may correct the menstrual problems.
In many other cases, the causes of menstrual irregularity may be medical conditions specific to women. These include endometriosis, a condition where internal tissues grow on the outside of a woman’s uterus. Another possible female condition that may cause problems is uterine fibroids, which are tumors that grow on the uterus.