Period lasts for 3 weeks

Hi Anon,

There are not very many medically-approved ways to stop your period early. However, one option that many women use to stop their period temporarily is taking contraceptives. Taking certain birth control pills at a certain time or skipping your final week of sugar pills and moving on to the next pack can temporarily change the time of your period. I recommend talking to your doctor about this before your vacation, though.

Best,
Erin 

Hi Anon,

Thank you for reaching out to EmpowHER and sharing your question with EmpowHER!

I am sorry to hear you are having periods that last for 3 weeks. I can only imagine how difficult and uncomfortable that must be to deal with. 

Several things can be the cause of irregular and long periods that last for weeks at a time. Typically, a normal period lasts between 4-7 days. Some common causes of long periods can include ovarian cysts, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, birth control. Are you currently on any form of birth control? Sometimes being overweight can affect your period, but a lot of times irregularity is caused by excessive weight gain or weight loss in a shorter period of time.

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is another symptom that can cause very irregular periods. PCOS can cause weight gain and very irregular periods on both extremes of having long periods and having periods less often.

I definitely recommend making an appointment to speak with your doctor about why your periods are lasting 3 weeks. They will be able to give a thorough examination to determine what the cause is and can help get you on a plan to regulate your period.

I hope this has helped! Please keep me updated on how things are going.

Best,
Erin