It’s the nightmare many ladies each month: waking up in stained sheets, working to the lavatory each hour to vary protective and this leaden fatigue which units in. In keeping with a survey Themselves-BVA*, 67% of menstruating girls undergo from heavy intervals, that’s to say menstrual bleeding bigger than regular (greater than 80 ml of blood misplaced per cycle). In half of the instances, this plentiful stream is claimed to be practical, and not using a particular medical trigger. However their well being penalties are quite a few: iron deficiency, important fatigue, anxiousness, even melancholy in probably the most extreme instances.
To answer this “taboo”, the Cemag Care laboratory has just lately marketed Haima, offered as the primary non-hormonal therapy towards heavy stream. A drugs out there and not using a prescription, in pharmacies. Haima guarantees to scale back bleeding by 36% to 54% from day one. His secret? Tranexamic acid, a molecule which stabilizes coagulation avoiding heavy bleeding and even hemorrhages. “In a context the place many ladies not systematically want to take d’hormonesit’s an efficient resolution,” praises the laboratory.
The danger of self-medication
Nonetheless, the “revolution” has an air of déjà vu. This molecule has, the truth is, been used for greater than forty years below the title Exacyl. The distinction? Exacyl is on prescription and reimbursed, whereas Haima seems on the cabinets at 12 euros, completely the duty of the sufferers.
For Physician Geoffroy Robin, medical gynecologist and secretary normal of the Nationwide School of French Gynecologists and Obstetricians (CNGOF), this free entry to this molecule is double-edged. “If girls self-treat and it really works, they won’t essentially go to seek the advice of and due to this fact the physician won’t search for the causes and deal with the issue extra successfully,” fears the lecturer at Lille College Hospital. Nonetheless, very heavy intervals can disguise pathologies similar to polyps or fibroids or result in extreme anemia generally requiring hospitalization.
Backgrounds to take into consideration
One other level of vigilance: safety. Though uncommon, the dangers of thrombosis exist. “Pharmacists will have to be very nicely skilled to ask girls about their historical past,” warns the specialist. With out cautious questioning within the pharmacy, it’s doable to overlook a contraindication (similar to heavy smoking or a historical past of blood clots).
Confronted with these criticisms, Cemag Care, based by Dr André Ulmann (father of the abortion tablet), assumes its positioning. “We’re not unaware of the existence of Exacyl, however we offer a response to the problem for sure girls in acquiring a gynecological appointment and due to this fact a prescription,” explains the group to 20 Minutes. The concept is to supply quick freedom to girls who “suppose they’re condemned to stay with it”. The laboratory nonetheless recommends common gynecological monitoring.
Managing an “emergency” state of affairs
Dr Robin acknowledges a constructive aspect: that of constructing it doable to handle an “emergency” for a lady used to therapy however wanting a prescription. Alternatively, he stays skeptical in regards to the business side: “It smacks of one thing very laboratory. Above all, Exacyl must be made extra accessible.” If Haima will help, it mustn’t make us neglect that heavy intervals deserve an actual analysis and medical follow-up.
*Survey carried out in December 2025, amongst 4,000 girls aged 15 to 54.
