DD age 12 has heavy, frequent, long periods. Any advice?

[underoverunder]

I've put this in women's health rather than children's as it seems more relevant.

DD 12 has had periods for 9 months and they are getting heavier and more frequent. Could they still settle down or this likely to continue?

If it continues to be a problem, what would Doctors advise if I took her? Would she be put on the pill? Is that the best solution or is there other medication available? Before we go down that route, are any of the minerals/vitamins reported to work?

Many thanks. She's having a rough time with many things at the moment and dealing with this is just the icing on the cake.

Oh yes - does anyone have a good book to recommend on periods?

Hi my dd unfortunately started her periods when she was 9 and they were really Long and heavy, I was quite worried about her being anemic so took her to the GP, she said that this is quite common and they are really reluctant to medicate at such a young age, the good news is that her periods got gradually lighter and are now quite light and last 3 days (she’s 14)

Mine were very very heavy in the beginning but now they are quite light. At her age my periods would be heavy for about four or five days and then light for about three. At around 15 (when I more or less stopped developing physically) they changed so I had one heavy day and three or four light ones. They have been like that my entire adult life. I think it may have just be a result of raging hormones. The first year of periods was definitely the worst for me (I would regularly throw up or faint). Is she suffering any other symptoms or us it just heavy?

This could have been me, OP. Sadly in my case it didn’t improve and I was eventually diagnose with endometriosis at 22 then adenomyosis later.

No matter what the GP says, it’s not normal. It’s common, but not normal.

Usually with teenagers they’ll start by giving two medications - transexamic acid and mefanamic acid, one to reduce bleeding and one to help with the pain. This may be enough for her but if it isn’t, I would definitely consider the pill.

I went on the pill at 13, and it helped significantly through my teens. I scarcely had a natural cycle until I came off everything to try and conceive at 33 and I strongly believe that limited my periods most of my life is what kept my endo from being worse and meant my fertility was not affected (actually one tube was damaged but it didn’t stop me conceiving twins).

I’m not saying she has endometriosis, could be all sorts of things, but if whatever they give her isn’t helping, keep going back to the doctors. Treat the symptoms as much as you can for now (unfortunately most gynaes won’t consider investigating for things like endo in teenagers even though that’s often when it starts).

It's quite normal for very young girls, unfortunately for them.

I was the same at her age, I ended up just taking the pill as they were so awful, and taking the pill made them a bit better. They found I had pcos a couple of years later though.

Sorry to hear from those who have suffered with PCOS and endometriosis. I've been doing some reading and see that it is common for periods to be heavy in the first two years until hormones settle down so I think we'll wait a year before we go to the go unless they get worse or it is impossible to deal with at school. I also read that taking Ibuprofen on day 1 and 2 of the period can help. Has anyone heard of that and followed the advice with success?

My dd has very heavy and painful periods. She was in a low dose pill (20mg) that didn’t help so it’s been increased (30mg) and it’s helping much more. She takes the pack back to back but has a bleed about every 8 weeks.
She also takes mefanemic acid when she is on.

Ibuprofen is chemically similar to mefenamic acid, I believe, so it is worth trying her on that for a few days each period to see if it helps with the bleeding and pain before trying anything stronger.

DD (15) has been on mefenamic acid for the past two or three years due to horrendous periods, and it does help with at least some of the symptoms for her.

Please do go see the GP who can talk you through pain killer options including ibuprofen, naproxen etc as well as tranexamic and mefanic acid and the pros and cons of the pill. Also if they’re very heavy and she’s tired then they may suggest blood tests for anaemia.

This was me, I bled pretty much the entire time during my teens, I eventually went to the GP with my Mum at 17 with a diary of bleeding and he said we should have come years earlier.

It ended up being endometrial hyperplasia which I now use the Mirena to keep in check. But I was on the pill for 20 years. It absolutely changed my life. So keep an eye on it.

Make sure and get her Nighttime Always, and the Always Infinity for day. They are 100% better. And buy her black underwear as its less distressing when you leak.

Thanks everyone. I won't take it lightly, I'll keep checking in with her each month and definitely won't put off seeing the GP if nothing improves or it gets unmanageable before another year has passed. I've had heavy, frequent periods since giving birth 16 years ago, so I'm sympathetic to the difficulties that brings.

At the moment she is not reporting pain. I will keep checking in with her though. She talks very openly about them with me - thankfully. Good point about the anaemia. We're due to see a nurse practitioner soon for something else - perhaps if I mention it they will refer her for a blood test to check or at least let me know what signs to look out for regarding anaemia.