Menopause occurs when a woman has not had her menstrual period for a year. This occurrence is the effect of a natural reject in hormones that a woman will experience usually in her 40s or 50s.

When a woman has gone through menopause, she normally does not expect to have any further bleeding. However, women may sometimes experience boosted vaginal bleeding. If she has gone through menopause, doctors consider the bleeding abnormal, and a woman should contact her medico.

Examples of haemorrhage symptoms that could indicate that she needs to phone call her doc include bleeding after sexual activity or bleeding that is very heavy and more than "spotting." Nearly unremarkably, the bleeding is unrelated to an issue with flow and may exist due to another cause that should exist identified.

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Vaginal bleeding after the menopause is non normally expected and at that place may be a number of different causes of postmenopausal haemorrhage.

Postmenopausal bleeding can be due to a number of causes. Examples of some of the most mutual causes include:

  • Endometrial atrophy: When the hormone estrogen stops being produced due to menopause, a woman's endometrial lining may start to get thinner. As a upshot, the lining of the endometrium may exist more probable to bleed.
  • Endometrial hyperplasia: This condition causes the uterine lining to become thicker instead of thinner, giving rise to heavy or irregular bleeding. The cause of this condition is most commonly excess estrogen without the hormone progesterone to offset it. Endometrial hyperplasia tin can sometimes lead to the evolution of endometrial cancer.
  • Endometrial cancer: This is cancer of the endometrial lining. An estimated 10 percent of postmenopausal women with uterine bleeding experience the bleeding due to endometrial cancer.
  • Polyps: Polyps are growths that tin develop on the lining of the uterus. They are usually noncancerous but can crusade unusual or heavy haemorrhage. Polyps can sometimes abound inside the cervical canal. When this occurs, a woman may experience haemorrhage when she has sex.

Other potential, merely less likely, causes of postmenopausal haemorrhage include:

  • clotting problems
  • infection of the uterine lining, which is known as endometritis
  • trauma to the pelvis
  • bleeding from the urinary tract
  • thyroid disorders

Hormone medications, such as tamoxifen, may too cause postmenopausal haemorrhage as a side effect. Many women will experience breakthrough haemorrhage every bit a outcome of taking hormone replacement therapy in the first six months.

Regardless of the potential underlying cause, it is important that a woman sees her doctor when she has vaginal bleeding.

A physician volition start an examination for postmenopausal bleeding by asking the woman about the symptoms she may be experiencing. A doctor will likely ask:

  • when she first noticed her symptoms
  • how much she bleeds
  • if she has whatever family history of postmenopausal bleeding

Depending upon a woman's symptoms, a doctor may recommend one or more of a number of tests.

Examples of tests used to diagnose the crusade of postmenopausal haemorrhage include:

  • Dilation and curettage (D&C): This procedure involves dilating or widening the cervix to obtain a larger tissue sample. Information technology also involves using a special tool called a hysteroscope to run into inside the uterus to identify any potential growths.
  • Endometrial biopsy: This process involves inserting a small, thin tube into the vagina to reach the cervix to take a sample of tissue lining from the uterus. This tissue can and then exist tested for the presence of abnormal cells, such equally malignant cells.
  • Hysteroscopy: This procedure involves a doctor inserting a tool with a thin, lighted photographic camera on the end to examine the inside of the uterus and its lining. The approach tin can help a physician to identify polyps or abnormal growths.
  • Sonohysterography: This procedure involves injecting fluid through the vagina and into the uterus. A doctor volition then utilise an ultrasound machine – which uses sound waves to place differences in tissues – to visualize the uterus. This is known equally a transabdominal ultrasound. The process can permit a md to determine whether the uterine lining is thicker or thinner than expected.
  • Transvaginal ultrasound: This procedure involves inserting a special ultrasound probe into the vagina to let a doctor to visualize the uterus from the bottom of the uterus, instead of from the lower abdomen.

While almost of these tests tin exist performed at a md's role, others, such as a D&C, are frequently performed at a hospital or surgery heart.

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The treatment that a doctor may decide upon will exist based on the cause of the bleeding.

Treatments for postmenopausal bleeding frequently depend upon the underlying cause associated with the haemorrhage.

A dr. can consider the information gathered from the testing to work out the all-time class of treatment. Some examples of treatments for specific underlying causes include:

  • Polyps: Handling of polyps may include surgical removal of the polyps so that they can no longer bleed.
  • Endometrial cancer: Often, the treatment for endometrial cancer is to remove the uterus also as any nearby lymph nodes to which the cancer could have spread. This procedure is known every bit a hysterectomy. Depending upon the cancer'due south spread, a woman may also need to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
  • Endometrial hyperplasia: Women who have this condition may take medications known every bit progestins, which can aid to prevent the endometrial lining from becoming too thick. However, a doctor may recommend regular testing for cancerous cells inside the uterus to ensure that they do not accept endometrial cancer.

If a adult female has vaginal bleeding due to the thinning of endometrial tissues, a doctor may prescribe vaginal estrogen. This medication can reduce the effects of thinning tissues.

An estimated iv to 11 percent of women of women experience vaginal bleeding after they go through menopause.

While women can expect to feel some irregular bleeding before they get through menopause – during a time menses known as perimenopause – bleeding is not the norm afterward.

Although haemorrhage afterwards menopause is not always cause for concern, a adult female should always consult her physician if she does have postmenopausal bleeding to rule out more serious causes, such as endometrial cancer.

Many postmenopausal haemorrhage diagnostic methods practice not take to exist invasive and can exist done at a doc's function.