Periods heavy enough to interfere with work, sleep or exercise are worth assessing rather than enduring. Assessment usually covers your cycle history, an examination if you consent, blood tests including iron, and pelvic ultrasound.

There is a wide range of treatment, from medication and hormonal options through to procedures and, where appropriate, surgery. The aim is to find the least invasive option that actually works for you.

Pelvic pain often has more than one contributor, and it is common for people to have been told their pain is normal. Assessment starts with a detailed history of the pain itself — when it occurs, what makes it worse, and how it affects your life.

Ultrasound does not exclude endometriosis, so a normal scan does not end the conversation. Management may involve medical treatment, physiotherapy and pain-management input, and laparoscopy where it will change what is done next rather than as a routine first step.

Both are common, and many need monitoring rather than treatment. What matters is whether they are causing symptoms, what their appearance on ultrasound suggests, and what stage of life you are at.

Where treatment is recommended, the options and their recovery times are explained in full, along with the choice to do nothing for now and review.

PCOS is diagnosed on a combination of cycle pattern, hormone results and ultrasound findings, and it is often diagnosed loosely. Confirming it properly matters, because it changes what is worth treating.

Management is directed at what is troubling you — cycle irregularity, skin and hair changes, fertility, or longer-term metabolic health — rather than at the label itself.

Any bleeding after menopause should be assessed, and assessed promptly. Most causes turn out not to be cancer, but it is not a symptom to wait out.

Assessment usually involves examination, pelvic ultrasound to measure the lining of the uterus, and often a sample of the lining — sometimes in the rooms, sometimes as a short procedure. Ask your GP for a referral rather than waiting for a routine appointment.

An abnormal result is common and usually does not mean cancer. It most often means a follow-up examination is needed to look at the cervix more closely.

Colposcopy is a short examination in the rooms, similar to having a screening test taken, sometimes with a small biopsy. Findings are explained on the day where possible, and any treatment and follow-up schedule is set out in writing.

Perimenopause can begin years before periods stop, and symptoms are frequently attributed to something else. Blood tests are often unhelpful at this stage; the pattern of your symptoms is more informative.

Treatment is individualised, and covers both hormonal and non-hormonal approaches with their benefits and risks set out plainly — including the option of treating nothing at all.