DD 11 has terrible periods and is missing a lot of school

[namechangefordd]

So DD is 11, she started her periods at 10. She's very anxious about puberty, had visible breasts since she was 7 and hates it. She's very tall and slim and hates the fact she sticks out like a sore thumb.

When she has her 4-6 day period she has dreadful PMT for about a week, cramps, really tearful, bad moods, angry, bad skin. Then during her period she's boiling, feels very nauseous, has diarrhoea, and again is very tearful.

She's had to move schools for year six as she was bullied and the school was useless and so going to school feeling really unwell is not something she can do as she has no friendships to really rely upon and so it's a huge ask.

I've contacted the GP (who I cannot even speak to until next Wednesday) as her attendance is pretty rubbish and I fear the only solution will be to offer her the pill, which I will refuse.

Has anyone had this when they started and it evened out? My periods also started at ten but they were very light and pain free.

I have had severe endometriosis that was only diagnosed when I suffered from infertility in my 20s. Heavy periods and pain ruined my teens and early twenties because symptoms were dismissed by GPs and in the 80s it was considered a disease only of the childless 30 somethings. Due to the fact that I did not take hormone treatment from an early age to stop my menstrual cycle occurring, my reproductive organs had been completely destroyed by the endometriosis that had been allowed to grow unchecked throughout these years. I luckily had a DD after 8 years and 5 IVF cycles but we were close to facing a childless future.
She is now 7 years old, and if there are any signs that she develops the same way as I did at puberty, you can bet your bottom dollar that she will be having anything and everything that can stop it. The reluctance of my mother for me to take hormones at a young age is exactly why my endometriosis was able to so completely damage my internal organs without impediment.
I guess what I am trying to say is that I now don't believe that periods like this just happen to you (as I was repeatedly told by GPs) - there will be an underlying reason. So make sure that you know what that is first and be sure that a refusal to entertain the idea of hormone medication is not going to store up problems for your DD in the future. I do hope that a solution can be found for her very soon; it sounds utterly miserable for her at present.

I'm still not sure what your DDs problems are. You haven't said her periods are excessively heavy. You have said she gets cramps with PMT, but not that her periods are particularly painful. It seems to be mainly the PMT that is the issue, and I'm not sure why that would mean staying off school. I think the acids referred to are really to help with heavy/painful periods, not PMT. That really is hormonal = pill

I would also want a referral. I understand that they are unlikely to refer on the nhs but if you can go privately I would ask to see a gynae who specialises in teens and to ask for an ultrasound etc to rule out any underlying issues