Advice on heavy periods

[Summerrain123]

My teen DD says she has very heavy periods. Every month, she gets blood on the sheets, on the carpet, on her clothes. I have bought her period pants, and she says, despite wearing those and 2 large pads she still leaks. So I have some questions for women who are very heavy.

1. is there a way of avoiding leaking everywhere?

2. is she just being careless and lazy and not changing often enough?

3. is it normal to leak so much and every month?

I'm trying to ascertain if it's something she's doing wrong or it really is hard to control if you are heavy.

Has she seen a doctor about them? They may be able to offer her something to help. And test her iron levels to make sure they’re ok. Poor girl.

I was like this, I thought 8 days of heavy bleeding was normal. Until my friends said their periods were 3 - 4 days. I had to use the super size tampons and change them every couple of hours. I also only wore black or navy blue bottoms. Turns out I had Endometriosis and fibroids. I would suggest a visit to the Doctors.

How often is she changing the pads ? Is she using long might time ones and changing at least twice a day ?

• night

If you are pouring blood you can’t be “careless” please dont imply she’s not trying hard enough not stain bedsheets.

It used to be flooding through 8 pads in 24h that was considered heavy but obviously less that that can still cause major problems and social stress. Worth a visit to doctor plenty things these days not to have suffer and risk being anaemia.

Some people a mooncup holds entire blood of a cycle about 40ml. I could fill it 7 times in first 24h that’s just how it is for some women.

I've always been heavy and it's even worse now I've had kids.

Always do a very good size 5 pad that I wear overnight.

Lying on her left side will also help as will taking ibuprofen.

But a trip to the doctors is also a must.

There's a great book called the period repair manual that will help you to navigate the doctors. You should try to avoid hormonal treatments at this age if at all possible.

I have always had very heavy periods,I have a coil now and no bleeding but I would regularly leak through at school.

I found Lilets Ultra (orange box) the most absorbent although they can be hard to find. And I had to wear a pad too. I would get through this in an hour or 2.

Yes I went to the Dr and nothing was ever found to be wrong. Very frustrating!

Going on the Pill when I was young really helped.

Please encourage her to see a gp as there are things that can be done to help, but it is unlikely it is laziness.

I could literally saturate to leakage in 30 mins when I have a heavy day.

I have to set an alarm for every 2 hours at night as I will saturate the thick maternity pad style towels in about 2.5 hours on a "normal" bleed day. On a heavy day I barely sleep and pray they fall at a weekend or a day I cam work from home.

No one wants to be that messy. It is awful and hugely embarrassing.

Help her get help

It's normal for some and it's horrible. And no, you can't control it.

Please take her to the GP for help.

I have had heavy periods since a teen. I don’t even touch a normal pad - Tena discreet pants (made for incontinence) are THE ONES - come in S M L. Not sexy but better than leaks and under jeans not noticeable at all! Zero leaks!!!!

Have you taken her to a doctor?

I was like this by 15/16. Eventually I was prescribed tranexamic acid (to control the bleeding) and mefanamic acid (to control the pain) which helped, in my late teens. I think a tampon, a heavy pad and period pants might be the way to go. Long term I turned out to have fibroids and I strongly suspect now that I had endo too. Take her to the GP

1) is there a way of avoiding leaking everywhere?

Not really, I have always had heavy periods and am guaranteed to have stained underwear and clothes each month.

2) is she just being careless and lazy and not changing often enough?

Depending on how often she’s changing, probably not. I have to get dressed in the bathroom during my period otherwise I’ll leak on the carpet on the way to the bedroom. It’s definitely not carelessness. On my heavy days I’m changing sanitary pads every couple of hours which is tedious.

3) is it normal to leak so much and every month?

I’m on a constant maintenance dose of iron tablets and after over a decade of heavy periods am finally being investigated with endometriosis suspected. Is your DD in pain?

Doesn't sort the root cause but I have these reusable ones, they are BIG but I have heavy flooding periods and have never ever leaked with them. They do nighttime ones too

https://www.honouryourflow.co.uk/slim-mega-pads-for-uk-sizes-8-30-128-c.asp

Heavy periods are awful and I didn’t get the treatment I needed until I was well into my thirties. In my experience, both my mother and my GP didn’t take this seriously. I’m still a little pissed off about this thirty years later

In your shoes, I would ask DD if she’s would like to try a mooncup. There are two reasons for this. 1, properly fitted, it will hold a lot more than a tampon or pad. 2. She will be able to accurately gauge how heavy her periods are and report this information to a GP while forcefully requesting an urgent referral to a gynecologist. Hard numbers are more persuasive and harder to ignore than ‘boohoo, I have heavy periods and it hurts’.

The average period is 30-40ml. Anything more than 80ml is considered heavy. My periods were regularly 250ml-300ml until I finally found a doctor (not in the Uk) who took me seriously.

If she does agree to try a mooncup, tell her to continue to use pads for a few days because it can take a while to get used to the right placement.