period pains

[fruitshootsandheaves]

DD1 who is 15 suffers badly from stomach cramps during her period. Can anyone recommend anything to help ease the pains. She is reluctant to take paracetamol, not sure why. It is starting to affect her cross country training. I never suffer cramps so have no idea if there is anything she can take to help apart from painkillers.

Does she have a regular cycle? Paracetamol would work, but if she does not want to try them, then knowing when her period is going to come and planning training around that may help. I get a little crampy some months, and then some times no cramps at all, so I would keep her positive that it may not be like this every month.

trouble is she trains at least twice a week and competes most weekends. She has just started regular cycles but always seems to get stomach ache.

how many days is she bleeding/having pain?

she's had pains for about 4 days this time. She's not sure about before shes a bit vague, but says she always gets pains.

Neurofen, taken before the pain starts (so as soon as she starts to bleed)is far and away the most effective pain killer. Exercise should help, but not if she is already in agony when she starts the session.

If the pains are bad, then hot water (bath or hot water bottle) will also help. Again, it should be as well as the pain killers, not instead of them.

I had horrible period pain as a teenager, and really do sympathise. (I used to vomit, the pain was so bad.) None of the other OTC pain killers are as effective as Neurofen, however prettily they may be packaged. It changed my life when it came off prescription.

Dicovering Feminax transformed my life (well, for a few days each month). It does contain paracetamol, though, and caffeine too - which could affect her sleep on the days she takes it. But I never found anything else to match it.

Some people swear b y taking Evening Primrose oil in the week before the period and during it.

You can get mini TENS machines which you fit directly onto the lower abdomen, no trailing wires. I've used TENS successfully for all sorts of things, but couldn't get on with it during periods because it needed to be positioned within my hairline. It may work for her, though, and is drug-free. With labour, once you've had the TENS on and working for about 45mins, the pain-relieving effects linger for about 30mins, so she could possibly take it off during training, if it was a problem at that time. Though I recall exercising helping, once I'd gone through the little 'wall' of discomfort at the begining.

Encourage her to keep a diary of when her period starts, when she gets the pain, how long it lasts for. This may help her feel like this is has the potential to be controlled, rather than 4 days of misery. I note your Is there a chance that the cross country is something she doesn't want to do any more?

thankyou for all the advice. Will ask her to try neurofen and paracetamol and look into Feminax and Evening Primrose oil.

she loves her cross country the was because she was a bit vague when I asked her about how long and how often she got pains.
I've suggested she keeps a record of her cycle but you know teenagers.... she thinks I'm fussing!

Oh dear! - you had better not be seen to be fussing! Good luck, I have it all to come
yay!

get her taking a really good calcium & magnesium supplement throughout the month, The magnesium especially will reduced her cramps & may get rid of them completely.

you can also get those stick on heat pads that are aimed at period pain which do help.

also try some co-codamol can be brought over the counter and is 99p for pack of 16 in sainsburys.

get her to speak to her school nurse they should have one who covers the school from the local primary care trust maybe on a one-one basis with the nurse, the nurse may be able to see a pattern to the pain and advise accordingly