A period typically lasts for around 4 days or more whereas spotting only lasts 1 or 2 days. During a period, there is usually enough blood to soak a pad. Menstrual blood is also generally red while spotting blood is often dark red or brown. Spotting before a period is not usually a cause for concern. A person should talk to a doctor about spotting that lasts more than several months or is causing concern.
Women who suspect that they may be pregnant may also wish to consult a doctor or take a home pregnancy test.
Spotting before a period is unlikely to require treatment. A doctor may sometimes advise a person to change their method of contraception to reduce spotting. For example, they may recommend a different type or strength of birth control pill. Spotting before a period does not always have an obvious cause. However, it can sometimes be an early sign of pregnancy. Spotting may also occur due to hormonal fluctuations, starting a birth control pill, or perimenopause.
Although spotting is not usually a cause for concern, a person should talk to their doctor if spotting is persistent or occurs alongside other symptoms, such as pain, irritation, and unusual discharge.
Vaginal bleeding between periods is a common experience with many possible causes. When this occurs, a person may notice light brown spotting in their…. Normal period blood typically varies from bright red to dark…. For many, it can be hard to distinguish between spotting and periods. Spotting is quite common and is usually no cause for concern. It may just…. Many people have some spotting, or breakthrough bleeding, when they start taking the birth control pill.
The body can take up to 6 months to adjust to…. What causes spotting before a period? Medically reviewed by Deborah Weatherspoon, Ph. Uterine fibroids and polyps are noncancerous growths in the uterus. They can grow quite large, however, and may cause pain and other symptoms.
Many women with fibroids or polyps experience irregular bleeding between periods. Certain types of spotting can also signal the presence of these uterine growths. This includes spotting that lasts across several cycles, or that is accompanied by:.
About a week after a sperm fertilizes an egg, the egg must implant in the uterus. Sometimes this causes light bleeding known as implantation bleeding. The bleeding typically only lasts a day or two and occurs around a week after ovulation. Hormonal contraceptives, including birth control pills and hormonal shots and implants, can cause spotting. Spotting may change over time, occur intermittently, or follow a predictable pattern. If spotting begins several months after starting contraceptives, with no previous spotting, it may point to an underlying problem and the woman should visit her doctor.
Breast-feeding suppresses ovulation, particularly if the baby is exclusively breast-fed. It is important to know that ovulation will occur about 2 weeks before the first period, so it is possible to get pregnant while breast-feeding. However, many women who are breast-feeding experience spotting. Hormonal shifts related to breast-feeding can cause spotting. Hormonal changes that occur as the body prepares to ovulate for the first time after childbirth may also trigger spotting. An injury to the vagina, cervix, or uterus may cause abnormal bleeding.
Rough sexual intercourse or a PAP test , for example, can irritate the cervix or vaginal tissue and cause bleeding. However, unexplained bleeding that is heavy or accompanied by pain can be a medical emergency.
About half of women who experience bleeding during pregnancy will have a miscarriage. In some cases, bleeding is the first sign that a woman is pregnant. Very early miscarriages may even be mistaken for unusually heavy menstrual periods.
Some sexually transmitted infections STIs can cause abnormal vaginal bleeding that looks like spotting. Gonorrhea is a common culprit, and may also cause unusual discharge or burning during urination. Pelvic inflammatory disease PID is a type of chronic pelvic inflammation caused by an infection.
Women with PID can experience infertility if symptoms go untreated. PID often causes spotting, particularly after intercourse.
It can also cause pelvic pain. That said, if your spotting comes with pain, fever, or a foul vaginal odor , you should check in with your doc—it could point to the kind of infection that requires medical treatment like an STD or the aforementioned PID. On another note, early spotting could be coincidentally linked to something else you just happened to do the week before your period—like getting busy with a sexual partner.
This doesn't actually have anything to do with your period. Minkin says. Uterine fibroids are benign growths that appear in or close to the uterus, as Women's Health reported previously. When women visit their gyno and end up discovering they have fibroids, it often has to do with the fact that they were experiencing abnormal bleeding which could mean before their period, but more likely is happening periodically throughout the entire cycle and heavy periods that last longer than a week.
Fibroids tend to bring on other symptoms in addition to abnormal bleeding. Those may include pelvic pain or pressure, constipation, the need to pee frequently, and more, according to the Mayo Clinic.
So if you have bleeding especially if it's heavy when your period should not be happening, not to mention any of these other symptoms, see your MD.
You can get diagnosed via an ultrasound and lab tests. Gynecological cancers can present with abnormal bleeding, so it's important to take any vaginal bleeding that you're concerned about seriously and get it checked out.
As Dr. Minkin points out, a little bit of spotting right before your period in particular most likely isn't cause for concern. With these cancers, symptoms would happen throughout your whole cycle. In addition to abnormal bleeding, other symptoms of endometrial or cervical cancers include pelvic pain and bloating. But with any health symptom that you feel uneasy about, don't hold back from getting an expert opinion sooner rather than later—even if it turns out to be nothing serious.
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