What Is a Normal Menstrual Cycle?

Hide Video Transcript

Video Transcript

Narrator
What is a normal menstrual cycle for a girl under 18?

Laura Corio, MD, Ob-Gyn
You know when a girl starts menstruating, just like our perimenopausal girls, the adolescent teenager can have irregular cycles up to three years after she starts her period, but hopefully once she gets out of the irregular cycles, a normal menstrual cycle is between 21 to 35 days, and usually bleeding somewhere between 4 to 7 days.

Narrator
Heavy bleeding, light bleeding, does it matter?

Laura Corio, MD, Ob-Gyn
I always tell the girls that if their cycles are heavier than a pad an hour, or they are passing clots, or their bleeding extends longer than 7 days that they should call the gynecologist.