prolonged period reasons..

[tuggletee]

first i just wanted to say i've went through a LOT of questions similar to mine and most of the answers were people saying "go to the dr!!" or "i have the same thing happening to me" but i never saw actual answers so i thought i'd give it a shot of getting an answer myself;

ok, so for the past 4 weeks i've been on what seems like my period and it's still going.. the first week was what's normal for me, medium/heavy flow with cramps and what not. the next week it was light but steady all week. i started taking a vitamin b complex every day and a zinc every other day and started iron this past week, and the 3rd week it's been reallyyy light but not light enough to be spotting. this past week it's been mostly brown discharge, sometimes it's pinkish/red. has anyone else had anything like this and been to the dr for it? if so, what did they diagnose? as a side note, i DO have a dr apt. and WILL be getting it checked out(i just don't like surprises and want kind of a heads up). i'm 20 years old. haven't been sexually active in over 6 months. i am over weight, but just by around 10lbs. and i have been doing some exercising the past 3 weeks. thanks in advance!

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
Brown discharge can be due to ovarian problems, hormonal imbalance, stress, anxiety, crashed dieting, use of birth control pills, change in environment, excessive exercise etc. Heavy bleeding can be due to can be due to hormonal imbalance, fibroids and polyps (non cancerous growth) in the uterus, endometriosis (deposits of the inner lining of the uterus in the pelvic cavity) etc. You might have to go for a complete hormone profile and ultrasonography to know the cause of this .Get in touch with an Obstetrician and Gynecologist for further assistance.

It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your doctor. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.

[nixmandy]

it is just a weird period quirk like that. there is nothing wrong with you. your period is just drawn out for whatever reason. The brownish discharge is just older blood from tissues that were already broken down and just waiting to come out of the body. The most common reason is starting/changing birthcontrol. If you miss doses it can draw it out too. It throws the chemicals that regular the menstration out of whack. Stress can cause it too. There are some herbal things that can throw it out of whack too.