Women's health · a tool to prepare for your appointment
Heavy periods — your treatment options
For women and people who menstruate. This hands you the full menu of treatments Australia’s national care standard says you should be offered — ranked least to most invasive, with the honest catch on each. It never tells you which to choose.
Optional. Anything you type stays in your browser and is never sent anywhere.
Just to check — is the flooding happening right now?
This tool helps you prepare — it can’t tell if something is serious. If you’re worried it might be urgent, call 000 or your GP now.
There are five main treatments for heavy periods — and Australia’s national care standard says you should be offered the least invasive one that works, not sent straight to surgery. The most effective medical option is a hormonal IUD. Many women are never told it’s on the list.
Decide which ones you want your doctor to walk you through. You don’t have to choose today — you just have to know the menu.
Least invasive → most invasive
The order is the guideline’s, not ours: you’re entitled to be offered the least invasive option that works first.
-
Tablets at period time — tranexamic acid
A non-hormonal tablet you take only on heavy days.
Cuts bleeding by ~1/3 to 1/2 less — reduces blood loss ~26–60%
The catch
Doesn’t fix the cause; take it every heavy period; not if you’ve had a clot. -
Anti-inflammatory tablets (e.g. mefenamic acid, naproxen)
Period-pain tablets that also reduce flow.
Cuts bleeding by ~1/4 to 1/2 less — NSAIDs reduce flow, also help pain
The catch
Helps pain too; stomach side-effects; take during the period. -
The pill (combined hormonal)
Regular hormonal contraception that also lightens periods.
Cuts bleeding by ~half less — COC decreases flow ~50%
The catch
Also contraception; not for everyone (clot risk, migraine with aura, smokers 35+).This is also contraception — not suitable if you’re trying to conceive now.
-
Hormonal IUD (e.g. Mirena) Most effective medical option
A small device placed in the womb, releases a low hormone dose.
Cuts bleeding by ~70%+ less; periods may stop — most effective medical option, ~70% reduction
The catch
Insertion can be uncomfortable; irregular spotting at first; also contraception.This is also contraception — not suitable if you’re trying to conceive now.
-
Procedures & surgery — ablation · removing fibroids/polyps · hysterectomy
Day procedures up to surgery, depending on cause.
Varies; hysterectomy ends periods permanently
The catch
Ends or risks fertility — shown so you see the full menu, greyed because you said you’re hoping to have children.
ACSQHC: only when less invasive options don’t work or aren’t suitable; ablation/hysterectomy end or risk fertility.
No tool can tell you which option is right for you — that depends on your cause, your body, whether you want children, and what matters to you. Two honest things the numbers above hide: (1) the ‘best on paper’ option (the hormonal IUD) suits many women but not all — fit and side-effects are personal; (2) every option here has a real downside, and ‘wait and see’ is sometimes reasonable and sometimes not — only a check-up that rules out other causes can tell you which. Bring this list. Don’t start, stop, or rule anything out on your own.
Three questions to put on the desk
Take these to your GP — they open the conversation the care standard says you should be having.
- “Of these five, which would you start with for my situation, and why that one first?”
- “What do we need to check first — could iron deficiency, fibroids, polyps or something else be causing this?”
- “If the first option doesn’t work, what’s the next step before we’d consider surgery?”
Email the one-page options list to take to your appointment.
A clean printable: the five options, what each does, the honest catch on each, and the three questions below — ready to put on the desk.