DD and birth control- WWYD?

[DancingQueen12]

DD16 has been on birth control pills for just over a year now for her periods (she’s not sexually active). She was on rigevidon for a year and is now finishing three months on gederal. They’ve stopped her throwing up (thankfully) and she’s able to attend to school but she says she is still in awful pain. She’s become very moody over time but I’m not sure if that’s because of the pill or just a coincidence. She’s been complaining of breast pain when she’s on (which is unusual for her) and stomach cramps, diarrhoea and bloating over the last few months even when she’s not due, so she wants to change birth control pills, especially since they haven’t helped her periods much. The last couple of appointments she’s had have been over the phone due to Covid and I imagine this next one will be too. So my question is, would you encourage her to keep swapping birth control or would you encourage her to stick it out for another three months?

I haven't had children but the coil worked for me. Painful for the first few weeks but nothing compared to my period pains. Don't discount it as people love to share their horror stories but for someone who used to cry with pain, the bliss of no periods cannot be articulated.

I am not saying she must have one, just to keep an open mind.

@KatherineJaneway Thank you for sharing your positive story with me. Every birth control isn’t without risk so it really depends on what she wants. By the sound of it the coil could be very beneficial for her, which I have pointed out to her, but she doesn’t seem that keen. I’ve been trying to keep an open mind about this but I feel like I can only go along with what the nurse suggests and I don’t really want to push the coil if DD isn’t keen on it.

@DancingQueen12 I hope it didn't come across as too much? I just wanted to share my honest personal experience of being on that particular brand of pill myself.
But I hope your daughter finds what works best for her.

It sounds like she could have endometriosis. I had a very similar story and was on and off various contraceptives in my teens and twenties. By the time I got someone to take me seriously and had a laparoscopy the endometriosis was so severe I needed extensive surgery. If affected my fertility although thankfully I was able to have children via ivf. A private gynae appointment will be around £150. Might be worthwhile, I can recommend various people.

Oh and the mirena is not a terrible option - doesn’t suit me but the insertion itself was fine (I had two before I had kids).

Implant and depo injection both stopped my periods completely.

The flip side of all these stories about the wonder of the coil is that some people have an absolutely horrendous time on it with incredibly heavy and painful periods, mid cycle bleeding and potential complications. Some places won’t fit it for people who haven’t yet given birth. I have two friends who haven’t had any children who were able to get it done, but both in their early thirties, and able to give convincing arguments about no longer wanting hormonal contraception, etc.

An implant or the depo injection seem like good options for her to explore.

If you have a local contraception and sexual health/family planning service they might be a better option for her to go to than the GP surgery. They have specific clinics for teens, but you don’t have to be sexually active to attend.

I wouldnt be recommending a coil for a young adult who is not sexually active, that would be painful.

My DD got dreadful migraines every peroid and vomited. We discussed it with the GP and she got the implant. It has been fantastic, no more headaches and generally no peroids either.

Also, the suggestion to get referred to gynae by the NHS is a non-starter at this stage if she’s only tried two pills. They aren’t going to entertain it when there’s plenty of other options left to try yet.

If she’s having mid-cycle cramps, bloating and diarrhoea then there’s nothing to suggest that that is gynae in nature. It could be IBS, coeliac, IBD or multiple other things. So that needs looking into by the GP rather than being put down as cycle related.

What about cerezette?

As someone who's been on the patch, microgynon, cerelle, the injection, dianette. For me cerezette was the one that worked. It stopped the cramps, the vomiting, the umpteen trips to the bathroom and I have no periods.

They will tell you cerelle is the same, it's not. My hair fell out and I got cystic acne from being on that pill.

I use the NuvaRing as jabs, coils or tablets are out of the question due to other health problems. It’s amazing, you insert the ring yourself leave it in for 3 weeks then take it out for a ‘rest week’ when you’d have your period. However you can just put a new one in every three weeks and not have a period at all.

My daughter has polycystic ovaries and the only thing that helped was cerezette. Reading so many posts about on Mumsnet from women who have had serious problems getting their doctors to agree to remove the coil, even though they are in terrible pain, would convince me to never have my daughter have one.

I never had problems on Dianette or microgynon. I'd swap

Sorry OP, I’m daft. It’s Dianette, not cerezette. She used to be on cerezette, but had to change.

@happymummy12345 Of course not! It’s just made me grateful that my DD didn’t have to suffer in the same way.
@welshweasel DD is one of those people who searches symptoms up on the internet and of course came across endometriosis. I looked at it myself and it’s seems possible (except for the symptoms regarding sex and infertility) but of course we don’t want to assume anything yet.
@QueenOfPain I think those services for my local area are supplied by my gp office but I’d need to look into it more. I took her to the gp first because I was worried about the vomiting and fainting and thought that maybe there could be something wrong which a dr would look into. That’s a good point and a possibility but of course I’m not a health care professional so I rely on the nurse/dr to look into these symptoms and decide if there’s something wrong. We know that certain foods upset DD’s stomach and cause cramps, diarrhoea and bloating but we’ve cut those out of her diet to minimise it. Stomach problems do run in my family so it could potentially be that. However, since she’s started her periods her stomach has been upset a lot more and the last three months have been pretty bad, which we think may be caused by her birth control hence why we’re looking into changing it. I think she should see a gp but with telephone appointments we can only really speak to whoever is available.
@Doodlest That sounds interesting. DD hasn’t mentioned this one to me but I’ll be sure to talk to her about it.
@DeliciouslyFemale I’ve been hearing stories about that too and it sounds like an awful situation to be in. With the current pandemic I think getting her the coil, implant and the like may be difficult and getting it removed if it’s not working fo her even more so. Maybe once everything’s calmed down we’ll look into a long-acting birth control but I think for now we may stick with shorter termed ones because at least with the pill she can stop taking it if it get really bad.