Is Spotting Between Periods Ever Normal?

Are you seeing little spots of blood in your underwear, but it’s still weeks away from your period? If this is happening to you, don’t panic. It’s a common thing, and rarely is it a sign that something is seriously wrong, especially if you’re young and otherwise healthy. That said, you need to take up the issue with your provider to be sure.

At Women’s Health Care Center of Houston, with two locations in Houston, Texas, our team of women’s health and reproduction specialists can help identify what’s causing your abnormal bleeding and how to stop it.

Why you might have spotting between periods

Some of the most common reasons for seeing spotting between periods include:

• Perimenopause: changing hormones can cause occasional spotting
• Menopause: same thing, plus wildly erratic periods as your body winds down
• Hormonal birth control or hormone replacement therapy (HRT) use
• Uterine fibroids or polyps
• Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
• Being very early in a pregnancy: some women have spotting in the first trimester

All of these are highly treatable conditions. If you and our team work together to find out what’s causing your spotting, we can usually find a solution.

More serious but still treatable issues can include:

• Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) like chlamydia or gonorrhea  
• Blood clotting disorders like von Willebrand disease (VWD)
• Hypothyroidism
• Chronic kidney or liver disease

Gynecologic cancers — cervical, ovarian, uterine, vaginal, and vulvar — are rare causes of irregular bleeding. You should have a checkup with our team, especially if you’re postmenopausal or have a history of reproductive cancer in your family.

How to track your spotting between periods

Add a code to your day planner, journal, or calendar to track when you spot and how much. This will make it easier to line up these incidents with what you were doing at the time, and whether there was physical or emotional stress involved. 

Tracking incidents of spotting alongside tracking your period will help your provider figure out what’s going on with your body. In many cases, the answer is simple and easily remedied.

When things get urgent

Spotting itself is often not a sign of a serious condition, but if you have other symptoms you could need urgent medical care. Seek immediate help if you’re experiencing spotting and any of the following:

• Pain in your lower abdomen or pelvic region
• Fever, especially one that doesn’t respond to fever reducers
• Symptoms that get worse over time or happen more often
• Any type of vaginal bleeding after you’ve gone through menopause
• Spotting that turns into a constant thing or worsens into heavy flow

Are you struggling with irregular bleeding or spotting between periods?  Get in touch with our team by calling 713-365-2900, or visit our contact page for more options.