Menorrhagia

Overview

Menorrhagia is defined as a condition of excessive blood loss during menstruation. There are many causes of menorrhagia. The condition should always be diagnosed by a doctor to rule out a variety of potentially serious underlying conditions such as cancer and uterine fibroids. However, in my experience, doctors may not always be aware of all of the possible causes of menorrhagia, especially a vitamin K deficiency. So if you have a case of menorrhagia due to an unknown cause, you may find the information below on vitamin K deficiency and other causes of heavy menstrual bleeding of interest.

My Experience with Heavy Menstrual Bleeding and Vitamin K

I've had problems with menorrhagia my entire life. I've been to lots of doctors for my condition and had many tests, yet for most of my life no root cause could ever be found. A few years back I was diagnosed with a genetic disorder called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), which can have menorrhagia as one of its symptoms. The EDS diagnosis provided a logical reason for my bleeding problems, and perhaps those of some of my female relatives, too, but it still did not provide any solutions, since EDS is considered an incurable genetic disorder.

Through reading nutrition books and doing my own research, I discovered that my menorrhagia was most likely caused by a vitamin K deficiency.
When I added more vitamin K to my diet, and avoided foods and drugs that blocked vitamin K, I no longer had any problems. I've been reading lately that vitamin K deficiencies are actually very common in the U.S. these days (as are hysterectomies for excessive menstrual bleeding), so it does make me wonder how many other women with menorrhagia also may have a vitamin K deficiency problem. (For more on this topic, see my section on Diet Treatment for Heavy Periods what I've personally found helpful.)

Vitamin K Deficiencies

The following links contain interesting information on vitamin K, including food sources of vitamin K and recent evidence that vitamin K deficiencies may be more common than was once thought:

Vitamin K: Another Reason To Eat Your Greens - New studies find that vitamin K isn't as abundant in the diet as once thought.

The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine: Vitamin K - "Where a bleeding disorder can be corrected by vitamin K treatment, the diagnosis of vitamin K deficiency is proven to be correct."

Anticoagulants and Heavy Menstrual Bleeding

Anticoagulants are medications that thin the blood by blocking the action of vitamin K. Not surprisingly, one of the side effects of anticoagulant therapy is heavy menstrual bleeding. One of my grandmothers was put on anticoagulants for an aneurysm, and she also had to have a hysterectomy for menorrhagia. I wonder, knowing what I know now, if her bleeding problems and need for a hysterectomy were caused, in part, by her anticoagulant medication. Plus I suspect she also had a variation of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and she may have had a tendency to bleed easily anyway, so it's no wonder she would have had problems on blood thinning drugs.

Here are some Web sites regarding anticoagulant therapy and heavy menstrual bleeding.

Complementary and Alternative Healing University - Warfarin Sodium: "Long term usage can cause nose bleeding, gum bleeding, purpura, blood in urine, uterine bleeding, blood in stool, bleeding of ulcers and wounds."

Toxicity, Warfarin from Emergency Medicine/Toxicology: "More common findings of excessive anticoagulation are ecchymoses, subconjunctival hemorrhage, epistaxis, vaginal bleeding, bleeding gums, or hematuria."

Salicylates and Vitamin K

Salicylates are substances that also block the action of vitamin K. Aspirins contain high amounts of salicylates, which is why people who take lot of aspirin often develop bleeding problems. I'm what is known as "salicylate sensitive" -- I develop bleeding problems when I ingest too many salicylates, whether it is from aspirin or even just my diet. Certain foods such as fruits, nuts, mints, vinegar and spices contain high amounts of salicylates.

I've often seen aspirin recommended as a treatment to help women deal with the pain of heavy periods. I wonder if that is good advice for everyone, especially other women who may also have menorrhagia from an undiagnosed vitamin K deficiency. I know someone who was put on aspirin for heart problems, but then developed menorrhagia as a side effect from the aspirin. As soon as she cut back on the aspirin, her menorrhagia cleared up.

Other Factors That Can Impact Vitamin K

Besides the obvious cause of not getting enough vitamin K in the diet, there are many other factors that are linked to vitamin K deficiencies. These include:

• High intakes of vitamin K antagonists such as vitamin E and/or vitamin A
• Malabsorption disorders like Crohn's disease or Celiac disease (gluten intolerance)
• Foods and drugs high in salicylates - aspirin, fruits, nuts, spices, mints, vinegar, etc.
• Antibiotics, because they destroy the intestinal bacteria needed to synthesize vitamin K. PubMed has many examples of articles on patients who developed all sorts of different bleeding problems from long term antibiotic use.
• Anticoagulants because they block vitamin K
• Hypoestrogenism (low estrogen levels), including excessive exercise as a cause.

One of my friends improved her menorrhagia problem by taking acidophilus supplements. Acidophilus are a type of helpful bacteria that live in your intestine and manufacture vitamin K.

Factors linked to increased levels of vitamin K include:

• Fermented soybeans increase circulating levels of vitamin K
• Birth control pills have a protective effect for vitamin K.

The common link between soybeans and the pill is that they both are known for raising estrogen levels, giving us a clue then, that like many other nutrients, vitamin K may be estrogen dependent. Another clue to this is that women are more likely to be low in vitamin K after menopause than before menopause.

It is well established that women often experience heavy periods right before menopause. Perhaps this is because their vitamin K levels are decreasing along with their estrogen levels as they approach menopause, and their heavy periods are simply a sign of this increasing vitamin K deficiency. It would be a highly logical possibility to consider.

Also see my sections on health conditions linked to vitamin K deficiency and Ehlers-Danlos: Diet Treatments for more on this subject.