Painful periods
If that time of the month is excruciatingly painful, you plow through super-size tampons like nobody’s business or your flow is woefully unpredictable, consider it a red flag, Romero says. Treatable but frequently undiagnosed conditions like endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome – top causes of infertility – could be to blame.
Fibroids, or noncancerous tumors in the uterus, or even pregnancy might also be culrpits. Any changes in your cycle, for that matter, warrant a trip to the gynecologist, Romero says. “Any unusual pattern to menstruation deserves a mention to the gynecologist,” she says, “particularly if it represents a change from what had been going on in the past.”
