Teens and periods

[vilamoura2003]

I've posted recently about teen being a bit tired and lethargic at times.

I wondered if anyone could tell me whether this is normal as I can't remember 🤔 DD has now been having her periods for a couple of years, but at the start they can be quite heavy but she gets black clotty bits? Now I get these now I'm peri menopausal but don't remember getting them before.

Are black clotty bits normal at the start of a teen's period?

It depends on the size but in general yes they’re normal- my DD gets them too. Are they particularly large?

re tired & lethargic. Have you had her iron levels checked?

@TeenPlusTwenties not yet no, but I think I probably will as the two might be linked 🤔

@RosiePosie15 not overly large (not like what comes out of me 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️). I think I'll probably just get perhaps a telephone appointment with the doc to have a chat 👍

It took my periods a few years to settle down, become predictable and stop having clots etc. I got terrible mood swings, cravings and lethargy around the hormone cycle until I improved my terrible diet which definitely did not include enough fruit and veg at the time, the improvement in the effects of the hormones on me was almost immediate, so it's worth casting an eye over her eating habits, cos even if the lethargy is tied to her cycle, a good diet could well reduce the impact.

avoiding a1 protein from dairy may help
www.larabriden.com/what-dairy-does-to-periods/

@ChickensMightFly thank you, yes I have been discussing with her about the foods that she eats. Being a teen it is very difficult to get her to make the right food choices 🙄

@toomanyspiderplants I will check it out thank you 🙏🏻

We have an extreme example as my DD, age 12.5 had her first period in July and it turned into a horror story - 27 days and only stopped after the 3rd medication she tried - and ended up with a blood transfusion for very low iron. Her symptoms of low iron was very dizzy, and extremely lethargic - as in couldn’t walk more than 20 metres without sitting down. I googled clots as my daughter had a lot and read they can be normal and nothing to worry about. If you’re worried take her to see your GP, maybe do a blood test

I would suggest getting her iron levels checked too. I had anemia in my teens that was made worse by my periods, I was prescribed high dose iron tablets. I've just been put back on them (31) because I started having heavy, clotty periods & feeling faint during them again.

@Darbs76 & @BernardsarenotalwaysSaints sorry for the late reply, many thanks for your replies, I will make an appointment at GP 👍