Deciphering Medical Terms for Menstrual Disorders*
Term |
Description |
|
No periods |
|
|
Dysmenorrhea |
Menstrual cramps or painful periods |
|
Hypomenorrhea |
Unusually light periods |
|
Menometrorrhagia |
Heavy bleeding during menstrual periods and bleeding that occurs frequently and irregularly between periods |
|
Menorrhagia (hypermenorrhea) |
Unusually long and/or heavy periods |
|
Metrorrhagia |
Bleeding that occurs frequently and irregularly between periods |
|
Oligomenorrhea |
Unusually infrequent periods |
|
Polymenorrhea |
Unusually frequent periods |
|
Postmenopausal bleeding |
Bleeding that occurs after menopause |
|
Severe psychologic symptoms that occur before the start of a period, end when or shortly after the period starts, and interfere with daily activities and/or relationships |
|
|
Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) |
Physical and psychologic symptoms that occur before the start of a period |
|
Primary amenorrhea |
No periods ever starting (at puberty) |
|
Secondary amenorrhea |
Periods that have stopped |
|
* Breaking the words into their components helps decipher them: a = no; dys = painful (or abnormal); hypo = deficient (or below normal); men = month; metro = uterus; oligo = few or scanty; poly = many or much; post = after; pre = before; rhagia = to burst forth; rhea = flow. |
|