It’s true. I admit it. We do speak a different language. I remember back in my early days of my medical school training. We would have to sit down and memorize pages and pages of Latin sounding medical terms and their definitions. We would be tested on these words. Later when we went to our hospital training, this was the language we heard on a daily basis.

There is a reason for it. It allows us doctors to be very specific about describing things to each other. Common language is not always so specific. Take the term heavy bleeding for instance. When my patients come and tell me that their periods are heavy, I have no idea what that means to them. One of my first tasks is to figure out what exactly they mean by “heavy”. Excessive? Prolonged? Irregular? All of the above? When I speak to my colleagues however, I use specifically defined words to describe exactly what the problem is with my patient’s periods.

The problem is that I sometimes forget that my patients don’t understand this language. And although I try my hardest to speak in language that they can understand, sometimes it’s just not specific enough. So here is what were going to do in this post. I’m going to give you the words that we commonly use in discussing heavy bleeding problems. That way you can understand your doctor better and hopefully through the better communication, find the treatments that you need.

These medical terms are going to describe abnormal menstrual periods. Just as a reminder here are the parameters for a normal menstrual period.

• Lasting 7 days or less
• come at a frequency of 21 to 35 days
• less than 80 mL (one third of a cup) over the course of the period.

Medical Terms For Heavy Bleeding

Menorrhagia

Regular periods that last more than 7 days and/or lose more than 80 mL of blood

Metrorrhagia

Irregularly occurring periods and/or bleeding that occurs between the menstrual periods, ( usually light in amount).

Menometrorrhagia

Irregular periods that are both greater than 80 mL of blood and prolonged.

Polymenorrhea

Periods that occur more often than every 21 days

 

How to Use These Words

I wouldn’t expect you to use these words in your description of your problem. I give you these definitions mainly to get you thinking. These terms that doctors use to describe abnormalities of frequency, amount, and duration of menstrual periods. If you can describe your bleeding problem in these terms using your own language, this will greatly improve communication during the heavy bleeding talk with your doctor. And don’t be afraid to ask your doctor to summarize what you said so that you can be sure that what you meant to communicate was received clearly. You can do the same with what you hear your doctor to communicate to you. The summary statement of what you just heard them say. With clear communication, you’ll be one step closer to finding the cause of your problem and more importantly a solution to it. Here’s to great communication!