Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
When to see a doctor
By Mayo Clinic staffIf you're pregnant, contact your doctor immediately if you notice vaginal bleeding.
In general, anytime you experience unexpected vaginal bleeding, consult your doctor. Whether or not vaginal bleeding might be normal depends on your age and the circumstances:
- Newborn girls may experience some vaginal bleeding during the first few days of life — any vaginal bleeding beyond that should be checked out.
- In girls who haven't gone through puberty and their first menses, any vaginal bleeding should be investigated.
- Adolescents who have just begun having periods may have irregular cycles during the first few years. Many women have light spotting for a few days before menstruating.
- Women starting birth control pills may experience occasional spotting the first few months.
- Perimenopausal women nearing menopause may experience increasingly heavy or irregular periods. Ask your doctor about possible treatments to minimize your symptoms.
- Postmenopausal women not taking hormone therapy should see a doctor if they experience vaginal bleeding.
- Postmenopausal women taking cyclic hormone therapy may experience some vaginal bleeding. A cyclic hormone therapy regimen — oral estrogen daily plus oral progestin for 10 to 12 days a month — can lead to bleeding that resembles a period (withdrawal bleeding) for a few days out of the month. If you have bleeding other than expected withdrawal bleeding, contact your doctor.
- Postmenopausal women taking continuous hormone therapy — taking a low-dose combination of estrogen and progestin daily — may experience light, irregular bleeding for the first six months. If bleeding persists longer or heavy bleeding begins, see your doctor.
- Postmenopausal women not on hormone therapy should see a doctor if they experience vaginal bleeding.
