What is a 'normal'length of period?

[beyondthesky]

Luckily I've never really suffered from bad periods, mine have always been around 4-5 days, with days 2-3 being really heavy.

However, my DD 12 has just had her third ever period and has been bleeding, relatively heavily, for 13 days non-stop.

Should I take her to the doctor (assuming I can get an appointment) or do you think it is within the realms of 'normal'?

I would take her to the doctor. My periods were awful right from the start, pretty heavy and painful, but I don't remember having one that length of time when I was young. (Nearer menopause, yes, but that's a whole other story.)

Poor kid. She may need to be monitored for anaemia if this continues. That alone would merit some sort of hormonal treatment, I'd have thought, to prevent her having this every month.

That doesn’t seem normal to me. I would take her to the doctor if I were you in case she has an infection or something. She is very young to be bleeding heavily for that amount of time. According to NHS info, it is outside of the range of normal www.nhs.uk/conditions/periods/. Hope she is ok.

I'd go to the doctor. Anything over 7-8 days would be unusual I think.

Thanks all for the advice. We've been out of the country for the entire duration so haven't really considered it properly before now. Will definitely make an appointment for her.

Thanks zen1 for the link also.

She is a trooper so doesn't fuss or fret about these things but it does seem a long time to me.

It is very long, however when girls are going through puberty and have just started their periods their hormones can tend to be imbalanced which may cause abnormalities and irregularities in their menstrual cycle.
Definitely make a GP appointment so they can make sure that's all it is, and it least it will help put your mind at rest!

I haven't had a proper period since before I was 16, so trying to think back, mine were about 5 days, heaviest the first 3 days.
Since being on the pill, my withdrawal bleed is much lighter and shorter, the day it starts is very light, 2 days with significant bleeding, then a day or 2 very light again.
I'd get it checked out.

I had this at 15-16.

I had a three week period during my GCSEs which was a bit of a fucker!

Mum took me to the docs eventually and the first thing she did was suggest I might have chlamydia so I had to have a smear done... I had her I wasn’t sexually active lol!

Anyway, the doctor put me on the pill and forgot about it as that regulated them perfectly for the next 15years.