Enter what you used over your whole period and this free PBAC (Pictorial Blood Loss Assessment Chart) score calculator adds it up. A total of 100 or more suggests heavy menstrual bleeding; the interpretation table below explains every range. Tallying on paper first? Print the Pictorial Blood Loss Assessment Chart tally sheet and bring the row totals here.
Day one of a period: 3 moderately soaked pads (3 × 5 = 15) + 2 fully saturated pads (2 × 20 = 40) + 1 large clot (5) = 60 points for that day. Say the next four days add 45, 20, 8 and 3 (two more saturated pads on day two, then mostly moderate and lightly stained pads). The period totals 136 — over the 100 mark.
| Day | What was used | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 moderately soaked pads, 2 fully saturated pads, 1 large clot | 15 + 40 + 5 = 60 |
| 2 | 1 moderately soaked pad, 2 fully saturated pads | 5 + 40 = 45 |
| 3 | 4 moderately soaked pads | 20 |
| 4 | 1 moderately soaked pad, 3 lightly stained pads | 5 + 3 = 8 |
| 5 | 3 lightly stained pads | 3 |
| Period | 6 light + 9 moderate + 4 saturated pads, 1 large clot | 136 |
The calculator works from period totals, so this example is 6 lightly stained, 9 moderately soaked and 4 fully saturated pads plus 1 large clot.
Want this calculated for you automatically, every cycle? PeriodVol works like a digital pictorial chart but goes further — it estimates your loss in millilitres, marks the 80 ml line, predicts your next period, and can make a doctor report.
Open PeriodVolYou have a number. Here is what it does — and does not — tell you.
The PBAC turns products into points, and only one point on that scale has a published meaning: 100. A total of 100 or more, added up across a whole period, is the mark Higham (1990) proposed as suggesting heavy menstrual bleeding — the level that lines up with more than 80 ml of measured loss in a cycle (Hallberg 1966; FIGO 2018). Every other total is read relative to that one line.
| Your total | What it means | What you can do with it |
|---|---|---|
| Under 100 | Below the 100 mark Higham (1990) proposed for heavy menstrual bleeding. It does not rule anything out: the score counts products, so things it barely captures — large clots, flooding, tiredness — still matter. | Score another cycle or two. One total is one cycle, and periods differ from cycle to cycle. |
| Close to 100, either side | 100 is a line drawn across a continuous scale, not a step. Your total depends on judging "moderately soaked" against "fully saturated", so the same period scored twice can land either side of it. | Score one or two more cycles before reading anything into it, and keep the counts rather than just the total. |
| 100 or more | The range Higham (1990) associated with probable heavy menstrual bleeding, roughly more than 80 ml per cycle. It is a screening signal, not a diagnosis — only a clinician can say what is behind it. | Worth raising with a doctor, especially alongside the tiredness or breathlessness that can come with low iron. Bring the numbers rather than "it feels heavy". |
| Well over 100 | There is no published PBAC cut-off above 100. A total of 250 is not "2.5 times worse" than 100 in any validated sense — the chart was built to sort above or below one line, not to grade severity. | Nothing extra to read into the size of the number. The step is the same as for 100 or more. |
A PBAC total is made of parts, and the parts are more useful than the total on its own. These are what the score is built from, so you can show the working: how many days you bled · how many pads or tampons you changed, and how many were fully saturated · how many large clots, and any flooding episodes · the dates of this period and the one before it. PeriodVol keeps this running for you and can produce a report to take along.
Pads score 1, 5 or 20 points (lightly stained / moderately soaked / fully saturated). Tampons score 1, 5 or 10. A small clot is 1, a large clot is 5, and each flooding episode is 5. Add every item across the whole period to get your total.
The 100 mark applies to a whole period, not one day, so a single day's total cannot be compared with it. Add each day's pads, tampons, clots and flooding as you go and read the total at the end of your period.
The same as 100. The PBAC was validated against one cut-off — 100 points, the level Higham (1990) linked to more than 80 ml of blood loss per period — and no cut-off above it has been published. A total of 200 is not twice as heavy as 100 in any validated sense; it is read as "100 or more", and the next step is the same: take the numbers to a doctor.
Not point for point. The only published anchor is that a total of about 100 lines up with roughly 80 ml per period. Away from that line the score and measured blood loss drift apart, and the PBAC tends to read higher than laboratory measurement. PeriodVol estimates millilitres directly instead of scoring points.
The PBAC scores pads and tampons only — a cup has no place on the chart, so a cup user's total will be missing most of the period. The cup's own volume markings are the more direct measure; the PeriodVol app logs cup fill levels and estimates your loss in millilitres instead of points.