For Carly, 37, from Swindon, heavy periods aren’t just a few difficult days – they shape her entire life. A mum of two who works in community services, she’s learned to schedule her job, her wardrobe and even her travel plans around her cycle.
“I’ve always suffered with heavy periods,” she says. “But postnatally, it’s been much worse. The pain is often in my lower abdomen and lower back, and I now pass large clots as well as bleeding heavily. I sometimes have to wear two sanitary towels at once, and even then I’ll often leak through my clothes.”
She’s far from alone. Research by Bodyform as shown that over three quarters (76%) of British women say they have heavy periods, and the impact runs deep: 75% are less likely to leave the house, 22% cancel plans altogether, and nearly half find socialising stressful. Carly feels that stress every time she heads out for work, spare underwear tucked into her bag.
“If I’m out visiting people for work, I take spare clothes and underwear with me because I can’t always get home in time to change,” she explains. “I’ve had times where I’ve had to sit in someone’s living room on a home visit, silently panicking that I might leak on their furniture. It takes a lot of planning just to get through the week.”
Workplaces are one of the biggest pressure points. Research shows 59% of women find work the most stressful place to be on a heavy period, yet only 16% feel they can speak openly with their manager. For Carly, the silence is familiar – she once leaked through her trousers and pretended she’d spilled yoghurt just so she could go home.
Heavy periods also reshape how women present themselves to the world. Nearly half wear darker clothes, a third plan outfits carefully, and less than half feel medically supported. Carly knows that calculation well.
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“It makes me self-conscious and emotional,” she admits. “I don’t plan holidays when I’m due on. I use my Flow app constantly to check where I am in my cycle so I can avoid travelling when I’ll have my period. It’s like living with an extra calendar just to manage my period.”
“It’s comforting to know that women everywhere are speaking out about what heavy periods really feel like,” she says. “It makes me hopeful that one day, managing your period won’t feel like something you have to hide.”
She adds: “I’ve learned to plan my life around my period. But it shouldn’t have to be this way.”
Dr Shireen Emadossadaty, GP and Bodyform medical partner, says “heavy periods aren’t just a little extra blood – they affect wellbeing beyond physically, emotionally and mentally. Yet too often, women+ feel their experiences are minimised or misunderstood. We urgently need to normalise these conversations and provide solutions that genuinely support those affected.”
According to Dr Shireen, growing numbers of women+ are experiencing heavy periods, linked to rising obesity rates, hormonal imbalances and inflammation in the womb lining. These are factors that can delay endometrial repair and increase menstrual blood loss.
Heavy periods are something many women quietly live with, often shrugging off painful or disruptive symptoms as just “part of life,” or feeling too embarrassed to open up to friends, family, or even their GP. But the truth is that heavy menstrual bleeding can affect daily life in real ways – physically, emotionally, and socially – and it’s a topic we should be talking about more.
Dr Shireen tells The Mirror: “Clinically, we define heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) as losing more than 80 millilitres of blood per cycle although, of course, this isn’t something we can easily measure at home.”
In practical terms, heavy bleeding may mean:
She added: “Many women don’t realise their bleeding fits this definition because they’ve been told it’s ‘normal’ or simply ‘part of being a woman.’ This normalisation can delay diagnosis and treatment and that needs to change.”
Bodyform has launched its new Ultimate range – its #1 protection for heavy flows, with full power absorption and feel nothing comfort to meet the real needs of women. For those on the move, periods can add an extra layer of stress. Almost half of women worry about staining clothes (44%), while more than a third feel anxious about not having products to hand when needed (36%).
Recognising that access to period products can be a challenge in many situations, Bodyform is donating 20,000 of its new Ultimate pads as part of its ongoing contribution to charity In Kind Direct – helping to ensure that essential period protection reaches people who need it most.
