If you are experiencing bleeding after menopause, it is important to get it checked out by your OB/GYN right away. While it may be something normal, like thinning of the uterine lining, it could also be a sign of uterine fibroids or something more serious. If you are diagnosed with uterine fibroids, Dr. Lipman at the Atlanta Fibroid Center is an expert in treating and eliminating fibroids without surgery.
What Can Cause Vaginal Bleeding After Menopause?
Vaginal bleeding after menopause causes many woman’s great concern and should be looked into by a doctor as soon as possible. Menopause is a term used to describe the condition of a woman who has not had her menstrual cycle for 12 consecutive months.
Bleeding after menopause is not normal, but it is not always caused by a serious medical condition. Some potential reasons a woman may experience vaginal bleeding after menopause include:
- Thinning of the vaginal lining can cause it to bleed;
- Starting or stopping hormone replacement therapy can trigger vaginal bleeding;
- Endometrial hyperplasia causes the lining of your uterus to get too thick, and it may start to bleed;
- Uterine fibroids;
- Non-cancerous polyps;
- Cervical inflammation;
- Cancer;
- Bleeding from the rectum or bladder can be mistaken for vaginal bleeding;
- Vaginal injury or trauma.
What Is The Most Common Reason For Bleeding After Menopause?
It is unusual for a woman to experience bleeding after menopause, but it happens most commonly due to vaginal atrophy or uterine fibroids.
As you age, the lining in your vagina and your uterus can become thinner and begin to bleed due to inflammation or because it has been disturbed. For instance, if your vaginal lining is thin, then having sex may irritate or tear it, which would cause it to bleed.
We know that uterine fibroids thrive in an estrogen-rich environment and tend to grow when estrogen is present. During menopause, uterine fibroids normally shrink because your body’s estrogen production naturally declines. Most women begin to find relief from the symptoms of fibroids once they reach menopause because they begin to shrink and their size is gradually reduced, but this is not always the case.
Women who are being treated with HRT (hormone replacement therapy) may still be experiencing painful symptoms, including bleeding, even 10 years after menopause. There have also been cases where women who were not on HRT experienced fibroid-related bleeding due to excess estrogen from sources other than their ovaries.
Is Bleeding After Menopause Always Cancer?
No, most of the time bleeding after menopause is due to reasons other than cancer, with uterine, ovarian, or cervical cancer only representing around 10% of all cases. That being said, statistics show us that the majority of this 10% did have bleeding as a symptom.
Why Am I Bleeding After Menopause?
If you have gone 12 consecutive months without a menstrual cycle and you experience vaginal bleeding, it is not normal, and you should see your doctor to determine the cause. If you know you have fibroids or have in the past, it is possible that menopause has not caused them to shrink as much as you hoped and you are experiencing bleeding after menopause due to their growth and disruption of your uterine lining.
The best way to find out why you are bleeding after menopause is to make an appointment with your doctor to diagnose the underlying cause.
What Can You Do If Fibroids Are Causing Bleeding After Menopause?
If you have fibroids, there is a safe, effective treatment called uterine fibroid embolization that can eliminate them without surgery. This non-surgical procedure is done by an interventional radiologist and takes only about 45 minutes when performed by an expert like Dr. Lipman at the Atlanta Fibroid Center.
UFE works to get rid of fibroids by cutting off the blood supply that is keeping them alive and helping them grow. Fibroids attach themselves to small blood vessels that jet off from the uterine artery, and they begin siphoning off blood that is meant to be used somewhere else.
During UFE, the doctor injects tiny particles into these small vessels to plug them up, preventing the blood from reaching the fibroids and diverting it instead to its intended destination. These particles can reach and eliminate all the fibroids, no matter where they are located, making UFE a much more effective option than myomectomy surgery. The fibroids shrink and die, which alleviates their symptoms, leaving you free to live your life without fear of symptom-related schedule interruptions.
After the UFE procedure and a short observation period, patients are discharged to recover comfortably at home. Most patients experience some pain for the first few days after UFE, but Dr. Lipman sends them home with medication to help ease this discomfort. Most patients can return to their normal routine in about a week, which is significantly shorter than the 6-week recovery required by surgical fibroid treatments.
Contact the Atlanta Fibroid Center to get help with fibroid symptoms and ask about UFE. Most women who are told they need fibroid surgery are candidates for the much less invasive UFE procedure. Additionally, UFE is covered by most insurance plans, so there is no reason to continue suffering from symptoms of uterine fibroids. Make your appointment now to learn more.
