To ask what can be done for heavy periods

[HecticHedgehog]

My daughter has been suffering for a couple of years. GP just suggested the pill which didn't help. She got some tranxemic acid tablets but they are never on repeat prescription and she struggles to take them. I suggested she takes her pill straight through so she's been doing this but it's causing issues with repeat prescriptions as she can't order more until a certain point. She has to change her pad every two hrs when she does have a period and feels like she can't go out.

I'm going to take her back to the gp but realistically I don't know what else they can do. She had a scan a few mths ago as I had a similar issue when I was her age and it turned out to be caused by a cyst on my ovary but the scan was clear. I assume they would have noticed if anything else was going on, or would they just have scanned her ovaries?

Is there anything more that can be done?

I got a mirena coil which worked really well then a few yrs after my dd who was around 16 asked if she could too and the surgery agreed.
Wish they were around decades ago.

Your poor daughter. I have heavy periods and I found period pants were a game changer for me. I still wear pads and tampons as well and change every 2 hours but the period pants stop the leaking.

The mini pill? I never had periods on cerazette. You take it back to back with no breaks.

I came on here to recommend the Mirena too. I also wish I had had it years ago.

Has she tried running pill packets back to back? I do three packets then a break of 4-5 days which sorted it. Maybe try a different brand too.

Sorry, I've just read that she does back to back. If you are prepared to pay, use an online pharmacy- no questions asked about how often you order. I use Simply Meds, 6 weeks' worth of Yasmin is £22.

Yes she has been doing that (on my advice) but because she's not having breaks she then ends up running out of pills as the surgery are really strict on how soon you can reorder your repeat prescriptions.

I suffered for more than 20 years until I found a (female) GP who referred me to a consultant who gave me the Mirena. Before that little miracle, my periods were very heavy AND lasted 11 days - with the subsequent one beginning 11 days after the previous one finished.

MIRENA. And if she's squeamish about the insertion, do what I did and ask for a sedative (which actually knocked me right out!).

Acupuncture - I went from very heavy painful periods of 5-6 days down to a 2 day bleed that was painless.

How old is your dd? My dd is coming up for 15 and has had heavy periods from the beginning, she became quite anaemic with them. The doctor has prescribed the mini pill but she doesn’t want to take it. She was then prescribed tranexamic acid but the tablets are like torpedoes, she can’t swallow them so the GP prexibed liquid tranexamic acid and that’s working quite well until I can persuade her to try the mini pill.
I am wondering if dd may have endometriosis, my sister was diagnosed at 45 after suffering for years and I have had years of gynae issues too.

If you used an online pharmacy, you could just order enough to cover what the prescription doesn't.

Change surgery/find a GP willing to help. Heavy periods are dreadful but not all GPs seem to recognize that. Make sure her iron/ferritin levels are adequate as low iron is known to correlate with heavier periods

That’s really interesting Newusernameaug, I am about to start some acupuncture for my health issues, I’ll ask the lady if she can help my dd with her heavy periods.

Get her back to the GP and ask if she might have endometriosis. One in ten women have it, but because it only affects women it isn't talked about as much as it should be.

There are surgical and hormonal options, but the most effective might be to take a low dose of the pill constantly if this is currently working for her.

If this is actually prescribed without a break by the GP then you wont have problems with the pharmacy.

The mirena has been life changing for me. My periods were so heavy, it was debilitating. I tried everything to cope with the flow. Moon cup - hilarious. I was filing mine every 10 minutes. Period pants - a disaster. Two super plus extra tampons plus a sanitary towel might buy be 2 hours. Passing clots the size of my palm. I was hideously anaemic, no surprise there.

The mirena has all but stopped the bleeding. It’s fantastic.

I got prescribed transanemic acid

Mirena. I do still have a cycle, but the bleeding is so light - it’s so much better than my heavy, painful periods previously.

Tumeric. I know, sounds a bit wooo, but i was willing to try anything and its helped me SO much. Take it everyday, get a supplement with black pepper - its genuinely changed my quality of life

Just echoing Mirena. I have some bleeding but very little compared to before and some months nothing at all.

Fitting it is uncomfortable but I found it no worse than a smear test. Expect some cramping a few hours later.

Can she have the progesterone only pill (mini pill). I take that and dont have periods. You don't have a break you just take everyday. It can take a while to settle down though and periods can be unpredictable in the meantime but in my experience very light.

Dd and I both use tranexamic acid tablets , they aren’t a miracle cure but definitely help and I requested that they were on repeat prescription to make life easier.

definitely go back to the doctor, no one should have to suffer with horrendous periods.

What about the contraceptive injection? I had very abnormal periods and now I just get some light spotting.

Sorry I know this is an old post but would love to try this. Just wondering where you did this? Do you need to go weekly for this to work? And for how long? Thanks!

Did this work for your daughter? X