Period Blood Color: What Red, Brown, Pink, Spotting and Clots Mean

Period blood can be bright red, dark red, brown or pink, and all of those colors are normal. The color mostly shows how quickly the blood is leaving your body and whether it has mixed with discharge, so how much you bleed, for how long, and the size of any clots say more than the color does.

This guide explains why the color changes, what a first period can look like, what spotting is, and how to tell small clots from heavy bleeding. Below it are the questions readers have asked about period blood, each with its answer.

Why period blood changes color

Blood contains iron, and iron reacts with air. Blood that leaves the body quickly stays red, while blood that leaves slowly has time to darken, so it looks brown or rust colored. Flow is slowest at the very start and the very end of a period, which is why brown shows up most on those days, and brighter red tends to come on the heavier days, which are often the first few.

So a period that starts brown, turns red and fades back to brown at the end is following a very common pattern.

A quick guide to the colors

• Bright red: fresh blood flowing steadily, often on the heavier days.
• Dark red or very dark: blood that took a bit longer to come out.
• Brown or rust colored: older blood that came out slowly, most often at the start or end of a period.
• Pink: a small amount of blood mixed with clear or white discharge, usually on very light days.
• Gray or green: not a period color. Discharge that turns gray or green, or comes with a strong unpleasant smell, itching or soreness, is something to tell an adult you trust about.

There is more on pink blood at the start of a period in this roundup of readers' questions.

A first period: often light, sometimes not

A first period can be very light. The NHS says it is not a sudden gush, that you may just see a reddish-brown stain, and that it might not last very long. Cleveland Clinic describes red or brown blood that is light at first, gets heavier, then becomes light again. A whole period adds up to about 20 to 90 mL, roughly 1 to 5 tablespoons.

That is one common way it goes, not the rule. A first period that is red and heavier from the start is not a sign that anything is wrong. What needs an adult's help is heavy bleeding, and the signs are in the section on clots below.

Spotting

Spotting is light bleeding: a few drops or a small pink or brown stain, less than a period. It can come just before or after a period, and a first period can be no more than that.

In the first one to two years after a first period, most cycles do not release an egg, and cycles are often irregular. They run roughly 20 to 45 days and change from one to the next, so bleeding does not always arrive on a neat schedule. One short or long cycle in an uneven run is not a reason to worry. The signs to mention to an adult are cycles that keep running longer than 45 days, periods that keep coming closer together than roughly 20 days, or 3 months with no period. There is more on telling spotting from a period here.

Clots and heavy bleeding

Small clots, like little bits of jelly, are common on heavier days. Most teenagers bleed for 3 to 7 days. Tell an adult you trust if you notice any of these signs of heavy bleeding:

• needing a new pad every 1 to 2 hours
• a period that lasts more than 7 days
• clots larger than about 2.5 cm
• bleeding through to your clothes or bedding
• missing everyday things, like school or sport, because of your period
• often feeling tired or short of breath

Very heavy bleeding from the first period onwards is worth raising even when everything else seems normal: it can be the first sign of a bleeding condition that runs in families, and a doctor can check for it. There is more on clots and the other things that come with a period in this guide to what is normal.

The checked facts this guide relies on are listed below, each linked to its card on our medical sources, where you can also read what each source does not show.