Hi Mears and Flamingotoaster (and sorry for hijack, Diddl)
I hope you don't mind my writing this - I don't want to be overly interfering, or scaremongering, or seem as if I'm trying to impose my own agenda on your situation.
I am just concerned about your daughters' symptoms, given my own experience and what I now know, so I've decided to write this anyway and hope you'll read this and make allowances for me if you think I'm any of the above.
As severe dysmenorrhoea in adolescents is strongly associated with endometriosis, I was wondering if you'd consider trying to get your DDs referred to an endometriosis specialist (not just a general gynaecologist) to be assessed properly? A lot of GPs and general gynaecologists still believe that endo is rare in teenagers, but specialists have been finding very high rates in girls with symptoms, and have been moving rather quickly away from the view that severe pain is just a variation of 'normal', and towards the opinion that there is often an underlying cause. The rates of endometriosis have recently been estimated at between 4 and 10% of all teenage girls (off the top of my head), so even if you take the lower estimate, it's a common condition. A British study recently found endometriosis in over 70% of symptomatic teenage girls (can't find reference), and the ME programme in NZ, which has been screening girls on the basis of symptoms, are finding rates of over 90% in girls with symptoms (see the table here). You can check their symptom list here.
The reason this concerns me so much (ovemuch, you might be thinking) is that I was exactly like your daughters at their age, and it upsets me to think of any girl going through what I went through. I used to be in such pain I used to vomit, and I was on heavy-duty painkillers to cope with it. I was told at the time that it was normal, and that genuine gynaecological problems are so rare in adolescents that they really don't need to be taken into account. I finally got diagnosed at 26, one year after the illness had already caused serious damage to my bowel, probably due to lack of treatment. This has left me with lifelong problems, and is something else that I'd prevent happening to anyone else if I could. And then I found out that everything I'd ever been told about severe period pain being normal and nothing to worry about was wrong. And, though there's more specialist awareness these days, things on the ground have hardly changes since I was 16, 12 years ago. Lots of gynaecologists still think it's a really rare condition in teenagers. So I made up my mind to try to raise awareness and help other girls who might have the same thing.
I can honestly say that it's not having the illness that's unpleasant and frightening, so much as having to cope with it without a diagnosis. And then having to cope with the physical effects of years of not having been treated. If you get your DDs referred to an endometriosis specialist and they turn out not to have it, you can feel relieved and curse me for having worried you and I will feel very guilty. But if either of them do turn out to have it, early diagnosis could be a Godsend. Painkillers will only treat the symptoms - meanwhile, the disease is continuing and the pelvis is filling up with scar tissue which fuses the organs together. Some women seem to muddle through their whole lives without a diagnosis, and don't seem to suffer significant effects apart from pain, which is bad enough. But some end up with major problems - bowel control, like me, fertility problems, even problems giving birth normally if they do get pregnant, as their pelvises are full of scar tissue. Early treatment can make a lot of difference - and there is good treatment available. I will never know if it would have made a difference to me.
Hope I haven't scared you too much. Please, bear all this in mind. I won't post on your threads again if you'd rather I didn't.