For the past two years, things have escalated, and I've experienced the following "irregular" periods:

• A few long, heavy floods (14-21 days of non-stop bleeding, much of it of the tampon-an-hour variety, complete with clots, etc.)
• A couple of "was that even a period???" cycles, with nothing but a few spots.
• And everything in between. 
• "Cycles" (hah!) that have become completely random, ranging from just a few days between bleeds to more than three months. Many anovulatory periods, as far as I can determine.

For the record, my doctor tells me I'm in good health (no fibroids, etc.), and I'm not taking hormones.

For years I've been on Provera, and that did regulate me. But about a year ago, I became irregular again even on the Provera. (thats why I stopped it) My periods were coming every 40-44 days. Even now, they put me on the Natural micronized Progesterone capsules, they still come every 40. Actually, this has become normal for me. But the doc says, no, no. This is not normal. I believe it is the beginnings of menopause. Can't stop mother nature. 

Another sign that I'm premenopausal is the flow of my periods. Before, I would spot dark blood for a day, or two, then bleed red for a day or two, then spot again. Now, first day I flood! All red blood. Lasts 2-3 days, then tapers off. Still get worse PMS afterwards though.

I was 41. It started with a lot of spotting that would start to develop into an actual period --by which I mean there were other signs as well, and a pattern of bleeding and pain of different kinds that used to follow one another in a predictable way --and then back down to spotting and then stop, and then suddenly I'd have a little gusher a few days later, and then spot, and then stop, and spot, and spot, and stop, and gush, but never get all through a normal period. 

About three months after this started I got the first episodes of horrific flooding, and after three months of THAT I beat it to the doctor.
   * What other types of "irregularity" have you noticed
Everything. All the effects get detached from one another and can happen at any time: water retention, sore breasts, mood swings, cramps, can happen before, during, or after bleeding. They can happen weeks and weeks away from any bleeding. Bleeding, heavy and prolonged bleeding, can happen without any warning bloat or mood swings, and can proceed without cramps. Every once in a while, in a little burst of nostalgia, a picture-perfect "normal" period will surface, begin and progress and end, just like that.
   * Anything else worth mentioning?
A lot of advice about this phenomenon persists in believing that you *have* periods, and tells you to, say, take an over-the-counter antihistamine or a couple of Advil "on the first day of the period." Ha. How do I count that, I ask you? It's all completely detached from the calendar.

(I haven't had any bleeding for three days. Long may it last.) 

During anovulatory cycles earlier this year I had cramps for about 2 weeks before a period as well as during. This stopped following a particularly long and clotty bleed in July. 

My only indication that i'm getting a heavier than normal period is the killer cramping. Almost as bad as labor pains ... but not quite. It comes on suddenly, then I feel the wetness between my legs and notice the seepage of blood in my clothes. 

I had really bad cramps when I first got my period at age 18, then just a few nods to cramping the day before my blood would flow until recently.

Now, it's either CRAMP and BLEED, or, "huh? was that my period?"

Oh. And now, the day or two after my period ends, I have to pee like crazy. Every 30 minutes or so for the entire day, I get up to pee. I *do* drink lots of water (80-120 oz a day), and apparently I shed all the water I've retained during the course of my period.

I had PMS so kept records of my cycles and noticed that my periods gradually came closer together as I got older from 32 days in my 20's to 23/24 days in my forties. I thought this was the norm for everyone as they got older -life in the days before the internet. I was 47 before I noticed what I called minor irregularities, and as I was the right age I assumed I was entering the transition. By minor I mean having my heavy flow on the first instead of the second day, or spotting a day before getting my period, things like this. I could not predict what would happen from month to month. Next phase I noticed slight differences at mid cycle, clothes tight in the waist from water retention, feeling irritable. Again I attributed this to perimenopause and started reading every book on menopause in the public library. I still had fairly regular periods about every 24 days until I was 51. I missed my first period in 1995. I only had 5 periods in 1996, 3 in 1997 and one, my last one in June 1998.

But unfortunately that is not the end of my story. A week after I returned home from that wonderful experience meeting several menopause friends in the eastern US in November I had some spotting, two spots to be specific, still it is definitely "irregular" to have post menopause bleeding. This is why I checked in with my doctor and had the endometrial biopsy I mentioned on asm. 

Final results are still unknown, the sample did not contain any endometrial tissue, I have put off seeing my doctor again until after this Christmas rush. I may need to have a sonogram to check the thickness of my lining.

I am not taking any hormones, herbs or supplements. 

In the last year or so I've started having 11 day periods. The first 5 days are pretty routine (with occasional 2 hour episodes of flooding, where I need to use 2 tampons at once, plus a maxi-pad in order to go to work) followed by about 6 days of very light spotting or streaking. About every 2nd or 3rd month I have one little "gloop" of very bright red blood around the 12th day.

I've noticed that the one month I actually skipped a period (last April), my breasts were not sore. The rest of the time, they're so sore that I can't decide if it's worth wearing a well-fitting bra during the day, it hurts so much when I take it off at night. (Stretched out bras tend to make the soreness apparent, though mild, all day long, but no extreme pain at night.) This past month my breasts weren't sore, and my period was the lightest I'd had in years.

(Pat K)  Before my own experience of "irregular," I sort of thought the expression meant that my periods would sort of taper off to nothing,  and one day -voila! -I'd find myself magically transformed into the post-menopausal woman.    Heh.

 How old were you when you first noticed your periods becoming "irregular," and in what ways?

Between the brown gunk that started & ended each one, and the "real" part of the periods, they stretched out to an easy 10 days for most of peri. (If condensed, they could've been all of 3 days, but would they co-operate & do that?? -no!) Near the end they were only 5 days or so. Bleeding ranged from medium (at first), to the infamous flooding w/ chicken liver clots, to *very* light, at the end. There was some in-between spotting on & off, too. Cramping got *horrendous* for a while there, but then was much better :-) with the closer together, light periods. Also felt mildly/vaguely crampy for virtually whole cycle for a couple of years. Lower back pain was *awful* for most of peri, for about 2 weeks preceding each period, until the final light periods showed up -then they lessened, too. (Yea!!!) Length of cycles (if you could call them that) started out at 31 -60-odd days, then back to 28ish, then up to 4 months would be skipped. That (4 month skips) happened twice. Near the end, they were closer together -less than 3 weeks apart. Last month before becoming post -had 2 (albeit very light) periods. 

(HomemakerJ )
36. I started going 6 weeks to three months without a period. I noticed that when I had a period my tampons were sticking and I had great trouble getting them out, so I quit using them and switched to pads. My flow was about the same as it had always been, but my cramps were no longer present. 

Around age 42 I had fairly regular periods, but the PMS got to the point that I was having only two or three *good* days a month. 

Age 45 the PMS let up but the regularity disappeared. I could never tell when I'd get a period, how long it would last, how light or heavy it would be. I noticed clear stringy liquids instead of periods sometimes as well as the famous chicken liver clots at other times. I've never had a long and heavy bleed to compare with the reports on a.s.m.

Age 48 my periods shortened to more or less 21 day cycles with only a two day period. Day one, a spot and day two very heavy. PMS was unpredictable. This is the first year I skipped more than three months in a row. Lots of problems with itching that didn't seem to be a yeast infection. The following year was more of the same.

Age 50 the PMS changed. No moodiness, but more aching and bloating. Before a period I would feel very dry (this was my signal) and when the period came it burned and pinched like crazy. The periods arrived as regular as clockwork. 

Age 51 more of same as far as PMS above and dryness, but the burning is gone. I still get the pinching even when I'm not having a period sometimes. I skipped over six months and then spotted for two days last November when we all bled. Nothing since.

I've got small, non-bothersome fibroids. I noticed no difference in my periods the three separate times I tried HRT, but in general the HRT made me feel awful. I haven't taken any for about six years and never intend to again. I haven't had a tubal ligation.

I once had a regular 28 day cycle. From around age 45 it varied from 24 to 36 days, sometimes alternating one long and one short. But just as I would figure out a pattern, things would change. Between 49 and 51 (the present) I have (at various times, not all at once): skipped up to three months two times, spotted for days, had the icky brown stuff at the beginning and end, noticed an odor and clear discharge just *before* a period would arive. During this time I had two light periods (I *guess* they were periods!) but my norm seemd to be floods. Several times I got cramps so bad I couldn't knock them with 600 mg Motrin. Other times no cramps at all. I had the chicken liver clots until a year ago and didn't see them again until yesterday. (Gee, does talking about this stuff bring it on?).

  I have a fibroid that's supposed to be the size of a 12 week fetus. 

 What other types of "irregularity" have you noticed (duration of periods, length of time between periods, increase/decreased flow). 

Mostly listed above --more spotting before and after, total absence of anything remotely resembling a cycle after 1996, some really nasty cramps in 1997, big clots, etc. Now I go months without a bleed, then bleed for awhile (I'm on day 27 right now, mostly days of spotting but heck, it's still a nuisance). I went for almost six months without a period --early June to late November --this year, and was beginning to think I was done. 

Well...at least I'm not having night sweats.

16 per period!!!!!! What's she talking about, towels the size of bath sheets?
(Joanna Who is sorry for the interruption but that sounds 'light' to me. )

(J) Agree. Using just tampons alone for periods is in itself a definition of "light" bleeding to me too. Number of tampons does not matter. "Heavy" bleeding always requires back up maxi-pads. I always thought tampons and back-up pads was lush bleeding anyway, never heavy bleeding. Chicken livers and all. I never found this alarming.

Quite, in fact for me once I'd reached my late 20s, it was a tampon which was the 'back-up'. It never seemed sensible to me to try and staunch the flow that locally or to plug the passing of chicken livers. Granted they did get bigger during peri.

There actually was a study once posted here that went into a bit of detail as to the variance in women's reported definitions of "heavy" bleeding. And the difficulty in objectifiying this information. However, the study did make an attempt at measuring this amount. 

I remember that study. I think Kathryn posted it. It measured quantity by weighing pads and tampons to work out the ml lost. What it couldn't take into account was the velocity. I think it may be that which is the problem likely to cause embarrassment. Perhaps some uteri have stronger contractions.

Um, this may be why the floods don't freak me out as much as they do some women -what I consider "normal" periods some women would probably considered floods.

(Kathryn) Yes, that is why I posted this. I considered I was having a heavy day if I soaked through one tampon in a few hours, I would never have more than two heavy days in a period, so never near 16 soaked through tampons. I did of course change frequently to prevent toxic shock syndrome conditions and used more than 16 tampons a period.

Would starting a period full flow in the middle of the night or in the middle of the supermarket be considered flooding? I considered this so during perimenopause..

(Joanna) Er..no, or not to me. Those were merely bad timing. Flooding was when a super size tampon plus 2 night-time size towels didn't hold the flow and it cascaded down my legs past the lot!

(Mary) Accidents seem to be a way of life now. I just try not to go out in public if I can avoid it...and when I can't I try to wear something really baggy with a dark and busy pattern.

I wonder if this sounds like exageration to women who have always had light flow? Maybe it has to be experienced to be believed. :) 

No, I wouldn't wish it on anyone! 

The common course of the menstrual function at this time is as follows:
The length of the intermenstrual intervals tends to increase to as much as six or eight weeks. The flow itself usually becomes scantier. In other cases, however, the flow becomes more abundant, and the intermenstrual intervals shorter than normally. In still other instances, all regularity of flow is lost; it appears now early, now late, and is now scanty, now profuse. The intervals have been known to extend for several months, as many as six, eight or more. On the other hand, when the opposite condition prevails, the flow may occur every two or three weeks. In very exceptional cases, a scanty flow persists right through what should be the intervals, so that the  menstruation becomes continuous, with periodic increases in the flow. It is not an uncommon thing, after a sudden cessation of the flow, for the menses to recur after a lapse of many months, and continue at more or less regular intervals for a long time, until the final cessation of menstrual activity.
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