12yo Two Weekly Periods

[lollipopsandrainbows]

Hi everyone, posting on here for some advice. I have tried my GP daily for a fortnight but apparently it's not urgent enough for an appointment.

My daughter started her period just before her 12th birthday. She's quite petite and athletic so is constantly active, but no health concerns. But her periods are completely knocking her off her feet. They are every two weeks, lasting around 5 days, sometimes only going 11 days from one period to the next. Last night she had cramps so bad that she was vomiting until the early hours.

I spoke to the nurse practitioner this morning, and she explained that they should settle over time (were 6 months in from her starting), but she's losing weight, has dark circles under her eyes, and looks a shadow of her former self. It's just getting her down so much, and I'm not sure how I can help her.

Oh bless her, as someone who has always struggled with painful periods I really sympathise!! The things which work best for me are taking ibuprofen every 4 hrs for the first couple of days of my period. Hot water bottles as well! And take the pain killers as soon as she feels the pains coming on as they can take a little while to kick in. You really have to keep on top of them!

If they don't settle down may be worth getting a referral to a gynaecologist and keep pushing the gp's for it, they have a tendency to palm off painful periods.

There are stronger pain killers they can prescribe usually, and it's worth getting her checked for adenomyosis or endometriosis as she gets older and if it doesn't improve.

Hope she feels better soon xx

Thank you @Emily29 . She's currently only managing calpol, but I have tried to tell her that tablets won't kill her! The hot water bottle we haven't tried but she does have those bean things which go in the microwave. It's more the frequency of them that bothers me, which would mean quite frequent use of ibropfen which wouldn't be good.

You need to get GP appointment as soon as possible. Yes, it’s true that periods often behave like this in the first 6 months but it might be connected with something else. She might have low level of platelets or as a result of bleeding a very low level of iron, it’s better to check all these things. My DD had chaotic long periods first year, nearly 2 weeks a couple of first ones. She was prescribed tranexamic acid by GP and after 6 months they settled ok.

This isn’t that uncommon from my experience. Ibuprofen and/or buscopan for cramps helps. As PP says the ibuprofen have to be taken before cramps set in.

Agnus Castus, or Vitex, is a herbal supplement that is known for regulating hormones & I have used it successfully in the past as I had a 21-day cycle (so 2 weeks off, one on effectively). It lengthened the cycle & reduced PMS & other symptoms, but you'd need to get advice if it was suitable for this. It does take several weeks to show any effect. Might be a possible alternative to the pill if that gets recommended.

Also there are yoga poses to try for pain that shouldn't do any harm to try.

If supplementing with iron, try an easily absorbable form like iron bisglycinate rather than the more common ferrous sulphate.

Hope she will get some relief soon.

@greenlynx I have been trying to see a GP, but due to the current restrictions they only offer a telephone consultation which I've had this morning. My worry is her iron levels, although I am glad to hear that it's normal for periods to sometimes behave like this, as that wasn't the case for me.

I did wonder whether some sort of pill would be good to settle things down, but with her only being 12 the nurse was against it.

So ibropfen rather than paracetamol? I really don't suffer from them so it's all new to me!

Paracetamol is better as it’s more mild, ibuprofen has more restrictions so I would take it very occasionally. I have painful periods and take ibuprofen myself but my DD was advised to take paracetamol and it’s what she’s taking since then. By the way when she was taking tranexamic acid it made her periods less painful. Our GP mentioned the possibility of pills but advised to give it some time first. And after exactly 6 months as she said DD’s periods became regular and settled.

This may help
www.larabriden.com/natural-treatment-for-very-heavy-periods/