In a message dated 95-09-13 18:18:54 EDT, you write: >Subject: Frequent Periods/Elevated Cholesterol Hello.I'm a pediatrician in the Cleveland area, and I often deal with adolescents with frequent periods. The most common cause is anovulatory bleeding, where the body doesn't produce the surge of progesterone necessary to mature the lining of the uterus and the women then has bleeding that is irregular and unpredictable. I also worry about pregnancy, infections, and lesions on the cervix, but her pelvic/PAP was normal. My rule of thumb is that if the woman is not symptomatically anemic and the bleeding is not dangerously heavy, she should take iron and wait. Usually it improves on its own (I've waited for several months to a year). The irregular bleeding could be due to the breast feeding (some studies have suggested that breast feeding women have anovulatory periods when their periods return) or it could just be her body recovering from the hormonal changes of pregnancy or it could be stress or it could be early menopause or it could be thyroid disease or a few other things. I don't know why further testing couldn't be done now. If it needed to be treated, I would even try a few days of provera first before suggesting weaning. I don't deal much with high cholesterol in pediatrics, but I did see a reference to cholesterol levels in puberty, pregnancy, and lactation and my impression was that normal levels are not known. Was it a fasting or a random cholesterol and what is the rest of her lipid profile? Have they tried dietary changes to lower it? I guess that it's easier to suggest weaning than to suggest not smoking. Mary Murphy MD Cleveland, OH