12 year old bleeding fir 5 weeks

[mumof32015]

My daughter started her periods in August 2020, and they have been really heavy. She seems to have a period at the start of each month, so at the start of February she started bleeding, but 2 weeks later she came to me and said she had ran out of pads and that her bleeding had become heavy again but told me it hadn't stopped in 2 weeks. We took her to the out of hours who prescribed her tranexcamic acid. She started it and the bleeding settled but was still there. The start of march she started bleeding heavily again, so I am guessing this was her period she has started retaking the tranexcamic acid which slowed it down. She is only meant to take it for 7 days so she has now stopped it but has now started bleeding heavily again. My gp has offered her the contraceptive pill, but something doesn't sit well with me about that. Has anyone got any experience in this, with their own daughter or even yourself? I am going to phone my gp again tomorrow and ask if we can rule some things out like tyroid etc before thinking about the pill.

My periods were awful from the age of 11 and my Mum refused the pill until some investigations had been done. I had an ultrasound and blood tests which didn't show anything but that wasn't until I was 14 so then I went onto the pill. As your daughter is only 12 and the bleeding is continuous (mine were just heavy and painful) I would definitely ask for some investigation into why rather than them just wanting to put her on the pill. I hope she's ok, being a girl sucks sometimes!

I would definitely want more done than just the pill.

It might be okay as a solution to the symptoms but she's very, very young and still quite new to having periods. I'm very surprised there's not been more concern from the GP. Surely, it would merit having a look for the cause rather than just dismissing a little girl for a lifetime of artificial hormones?

Has she had her platelet count checked?

My daughter had a 27 day period at that age, soon after starting them. The doctor said they aren’t meant to test for anaemia until they’ve had periods for a year - thankfully she trusted my instinct and knows I’ve had iron issues on and off myself, so she got her tested anyway. She was indeed very anaemic. Treatment has helped a lot, they’re still heavy but it’s not been nearly as bad

She had a blood test in December to check her iron levels and nothing else, as she fainted at home. Her iron level was normal, and the fainting episode was put down to fluctuating hormones.
Another GP is calling us today, so I am going to just tell him we want to find out what actually is going on rather than just giving her something on guess work.