To be fed up for 18 year old daughter

[ejk10]

My daughter is 18 and is going on a trip to India tomorrow with school - all Year 13 leavers. She will be away for 2 weeks. I've just come home from work and she is in tears because she has just started her period! She will be staying in a village and doing charity work so she is really worried about how she will cope. She has very heavy periods and does not get on with tampons well.

AIBU to be so fed up for her and to ask if there are any ways to lighten or stop her period on this one off occasion?

I’m not aware of any. Can’t she just pack sanitary towels?

She's needs to get transaxemic acid now!!

Too late now really. For norethisterone you're better off starting 3 days before your period is due. You CAN use it to stop a period that's already started, at least temporarily, but it's not as effective.
In a 2 week trip it was always very possible this would happen, probably best at the start.

It’s a bugger that she didn’t anticipate this and get medication to delay her period.

She needs to take the maximum dose of ibuprofen starting straight away. It can lighten flow. You can ignore the maximum dose in 24 hours just for two or three days but not the spacing between doses.

See if you can get a GP appointment.

Get her some super plus maternity pads and double up.

Bless her....but agree with above!!! Better getting it over and done with. Maybe some practice with an easy tampon too like the Tampax pearl!!!

Surely not a good idea to try tranexamic acid for the first time when immediately flying to India for a fortnight!

Tell her to take pads and nappy sacks.
Facilities are shite in rural
India but there are provisions. Also (and I know mumsnetters hate them) wipes.
Tell her to take pants specifically for her period, big black belly warmers.

Tranexamic acid

Maybe pop out and get a moon cup? They're great when travelling!

It could be a good opportunity to learn about how girls in the place she's visiting cope with periods, heavy or otherwise?

Moon cup or equivalent, should be able to get one in any large boots or Superdrug.

How many really heavy days does she have? At least today and tomorrow she will have access to decent facilities, the airports will have decent toilets. So that will get her to at least tomorrow evening?
Better she started now than say in 48 hours time.

Pack a decent supply of pads, wipes and nappy sacks, she'll just have to bin them as and when she can. Small silver lining, once it's over, at least she won't be worrying about starting as some of the other girls might?

I don't really think it's the best time to try a mooncup.

They sell Lily cups in my local Sainsbury's which might be easier for her than a Mooncup (which are a bit bigger and less flexible). But I would definitely recommend a menstrual cup in those circumstances. By far the most flexible and reliable thing for travelling.

A mooncup would be the best idea because Indian bin-men often loudly protest against taking disposables, even when wrapped sanitarily, due to ‘cleanliness’. Would suggest getting antiseptic wipes from Boots to clean it with.

Contraceptive pill? Makes periods lighter when you have a pill break and you can take microgynon packets back to back now, so you don’t need to have a period at all.

A different kind of heads up...I'm obviously not sure what it will be like where she is, but if it is Hindu village, they might ask about periods, because there may be restrictions on what she can do. She may wish to consider how she would deal with very blunt and public questioning, and what she would answer. It is very normal, of course, but she may not feel comfortable advertising it, so to speak.

@PooFacedPie - drying washable pads in an Indian village is a PITA as you need to do it in secret and you can’t really hang it up to dry anywhere someone can see without really pissing people off. A cup is better because you can just rinse and disinfect.

Get her a pack of nappy sacks and a bin liner, the long super absorbent towels and tell her to wrap, tie and keep in her luggage until they go to a larger town where there's proper bins (or the airport) she won't be alone in her group, the school may have even thought this through

It could be a good opportunity to learn about how girls in the place she's visiting cope with periods, heavy or otherwise?

They don’t cope. In places like this girls miss school and are unable to leave the house because of heavy or even normal periods and lack of effective sanitary products.

In places like this girls miss school and are unable to leave the house because of heavy or even normal periods and lack of effective sanitary products.

Which puts this situation into perspective, doesn’t it?