school not taking dds period pains seriously

[canigetarepp]

my DD has very very heavy and painful periods. she is 14 now and her periods have always been like this since she started aged 11. she takes iron tablets because otherwise she becomes anaemic. she is prescribed the same medication that I used to take before my hysterectomy, for adenomyosis. GP tries to encourage her to go on the pill, but she doesn't want to.
she has also had burst ovarian cysts, for which she was hospitalised in the past.
yesterday she went to 3 different teachers at school because of her period requesting to come home. they refused to call me. one of them even mocked her and asked how she was going to cope in the real world if she can't cope with period pains, teachers can't go home when they get their periods etc etc

I'm really cross. I need to be able to trust that they will look after her. what am I supposed to do, just keep her home when she has her period so I know this won't happen again, that seems extreme. I know this was in the press recently so it's obviously fairly common. how do you/your dds deal with school, regarding periods?

I’d be wondering if the distress is more around the heaviness etc and other symptoms, rather than pain. It’s one thing to reject the pill, but quite another to reject pain relief. Before my endo was properly managed by the pill, I would have sold my firstborn for decent pain relief. Refusing pain killers isn’t something anyone with endo has the luxury of doing.

If it is the heaviness, are there additional layers of protection she can use?

they don't have a school nurse in the school. I think she visits once a month. I have been very explicit with HoY. I thought it was understood, it was on that basis that she was given a toilet pass. I have emailed again but haven't had a reply yet. sometimes we don't get replies. I would actually like her to move schools. this school has a good academic reputation. but this is my second child at that school and I think they aren't very good at the caring/nurturing.

I can’t believe they didn’t suggest the mini pill earlier! It’s such an obvious solution. Your poor daughter.

I was very similar to your DD at that age, my periods were horrific. Those suggesting the pill as the answer, it didn’t help for me. I tried various types including the injection and all just caused havoc on my body and I ended up with continuous bleeding/spotting throughout the whole month. Whilst it was much lighter than my periods it was somewhat much worse than say a week of heavy bleeding and pain.

Has your DD tried Feminax Express for the pain? It’s the only otc tablet I’ve found that actually takes the pain away for me and works quickly.

I had issues with dds school. She gets painful heavy periods every month and I make sure she carries painkillers but they only take the edge off sometimes.

She was bent over the table crying at school, asking to come home. The (woman) teacher said 'no, its part of being a woman, that she has to deal with it and would she expect a day off if she was working' 😶

It makes me so angry what young girls/women have to go through.

If your child went to the teacher and complained that she felt sick and had really bad tummy ache without mentioning periods they would call home.

As soon as you mention periods they expect girls to toughen up.

I remember being at school with horrendous period pains. I couldnt concentrate and felt delirious with the pain. It was horrible.

Feminax express is just Ibruprofen though
I find Naproxen better but its not OTC, you can buy it online but of course I wouldn't advise OP to give her DD anything Prescription only without the advice of a Medical Professional.

My reply would be yes! I have reasonable adjustments at work for my "periods" which are endo/adenomyosis

This is a very uncalled for approach for a sensitive subject. If given the choice, my daughter would prefer not to have to take medication, as would a lot of people for many different conditions. Schools really need to be more empathic in their attitude and response to this subject in general.

Not really. We use the combined pill in that age group for period problems all the time, with huge success - often transformative to their access to education. If you're old enough to have periods, you're old enough to have evidence based medical treatment for them.

Well of course everyone prefers not to take medication. But if a medical issue is significantly affecting your education, then choosing not to treat it is somewhat of a 'head in the sand' approach which is likely to harm you.