General Practice Questions OB-GYN

Menopause possibly?

I take vitamin D3, B12, elderberry, lutein, calcium, and fish oil, I also take cimbalta and wellbutrin for anxiety and I have to use eye drops latanoprast and rhopressa for glaucoma. I had a partial hysterectomy years ago because of fibroid tumors, I have had a mail-in colonoscopy that came in negative for cancer, I had a bowel movement and it was normal but it felt like my vagina opened up and dropped a blood clot in the toilet, is this normal? I do have my fallopian tubes, I have no pain or weakness, should I be worried or be checked out for anything?

Female | 61 years old

4 Answers

Check with gyn. Vag// urine
Yes, any bleeding, especially a clot, is not normal. You should see an ob/gyn.
Indeed if this blood clot was passed from your vaginal vault, then you need to be examined by a GYN and you may require a pelvic US of abdom/pelvic CT scan. Sometimes you can have a vaginal polyp at the top of the vagina where the cervix used to be; these polyps can bleed and even form small clots but polyps should be investigated and usually treated with Silver nitrate (AgNO3) in the office which is a liquid cautery. If you had a supracervical hysterectomy (uterus removed but cervix remains), then bleeding can happen from the cervix, usually the cervical canal so this also needs to be checked by a Pap smear and possible colposcopy with endocervical curettage or sampling of the tissues of the cervical canal. Rarely, but sometimes there can be a fibroid that is within the cervix and sometimes fibroids are found in the fallopian tubes; if they were scarred to the vaginal vault, then stimulation or growth of that tissue can occur and stress the vaginal cuff, possibly causing bleeding.

Another possible reason for vaginal bleeding can be from the prolapsed tissue of the urethra or caruncle (where your urine comes out) and that tissue can bleed; however, this is usually only spotting on toilet tissue with wiping but small polyps can form and cause heavier bleeding. Treatment for caruncles are usually with a topical Estradiol cream applied directly; this Estradiol is not absorbed into your bloodstream so you don’t need to worry about getting blood levels checked. However, sometimes topical cream alone may not solve the problem and taking oral bio-identical hormone as Estradiol + Progesterone. For further information about menopause and how to manage your health issues in menopause, check out my book, Full Bloom: Perimenopause, Menopause, Postmenopause and Beyond which is available on Amazon.
Without a uterus, you should have no bleeding coming from the vaginal area. It is possible that you could have had some vaginal bleeding due to other factors such as vaginal atrophy that could have produced a blood clot that happened to come out at the same time. You would want to make sure the bleeding or blood clot was actually from the vagina, and not from the rectum or anus. It sounds like you have had clear stool tests. My concern would be a rectovaginal fistula in where there is a connection between the rectum and the vaginal area and that it was not actually a blood clot but some stool. If this happens again or you see anything else that looks like blood coming from the vaginal area, I would highly recommend getting it checked out right away.