Regular bleeding from the uterus is called menstruation. Any vaginal or uterine bleeding that is not due to menstruation is called irregular bleeding, or "metrorrhagia". Metrorrhagia can be organic or functional in nature. Organic metrorrhagia is due to an organic disorder of the uterus such as an infection, tumor, trauma, foreign body etc. Functional metrorrhagia is caused by hormonal imbalance in the endocrine axis of the hypothalamus - hypophisis - and ovaries.

A pap-test and ultrasound scan are used to confirm or exclude organic reasons for metrorrhagia. If organic reasons are present for irregular vaginal beelding, treatment will depend upon diagnosis. If organic metrorrhagia is not confirmed, the remaining diagnostic possibility is functional metrorrhagia. Progesterone is usually given for treating functional metrorrhagia. If progesterone doesn’t help ... the next step in treatment could be explorative curettage. Explorative curettage has both a diagnostic and therapeutic value. The procedure can reveal features that can’t be seen with ultrasound scan or Pap-test and is helpful even in cases of functional bleeding. You can consult your gynaecologist about this for more information and follow up.