For the first day or two, this bleeding—in particular, the clotted blood—can be a little scary. You’ll sit down to pee or get up out of the bed and there will be an enormous blood clot in the toilet or on the pad. The doctors will tell you to watch out for clots “fist size or larger” (other doctors will use fruit metaphors—a plum- or small orange–size clot, they want to know about). By extension, this means that clots smaller than that—but not much smaller—are common. Passing these isn’t typically painful, but it is jarring.
