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  1 0 Birth control might really help your daughter--yes, you'd be adding hormones to her system, but they would help regulate everything else that's going on. It'll also help if she is also getting miserable acne along with miserable periods. (That was my teenage years.)Take her to your gynecologist and get some advice there. From personal experience, the regular old Pill was awesome for treating exactly your daughter's issues, although I was a little bit older when I started taking the Pill. If you simply can't/won't go to your gynecologist, then have her try taking the max dose of ibuprofen at the beginning of her period (and preferably the day before it starts if her cycle is regular). It helps with cramping and decreasing bleeding. Griffin answered in Teens & Tweens about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 The mini pill (Camila) is an estrogen-free pill that also prevents periods altogether (women don't actually need to menstruate every month if they aren't trying to conceive). It's still birth control, but without all the hormones and side-effects. I took it when I was breastfeeding because the hormones in regular pills pass through the breast milk. Here is some more information about it. http://www.webmd.com/drugs/drug-64301-Camila+Oral.aspx?drugid=64301&drugname=Camila+Oral Jessica Baxter answered in Teens & Tweens about 1 year ago | Report 2 comments by Griffin and Jessica Baxter… 0 0 Your pill is a hormone-containing pill. It just doesn't have estrogen. Instead, it's progesterone. Griffin commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 True. But progesterone is so mild as to have little to no side-effects apart from not being able to get pregnant. I had taken her post to mean that she didn't want to mess up her daughter physically with added hormone. Jessica Baxter commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 That totally sucks that your daughter is having such difficulty with her periods. My little sister had the same problem at a similar age and my mom got her on birth control. The only problem was that, as a twelve-year-old, my sister was horrible at remembering to take it and my mom wasn't always able to remind her either. I have NO idea if this is even possible for a twelve-year-old, so I could be way way off, but I have an IUD at the moment (the Mirena) and it releases a very, very low dose of hormone slowly over time (I believe it's progestin?) and eliminates my periods altogether. It's pretty sweet, in my opinion. The only thing is I don't know if it would be recommended, or even possible, to insert it into a twelve-year-old, or even if your daughter would be okay with that. If not, maybe something to think about for when she's older. In any case, I hope she's able to find some relief soon! k-lethal answered in Teens & Tweens about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by BasementDweller3… 0 0 Nuva Ring, patch, there are other options than pills now, much easier to use. You don't want to start with anything invasive like that until you know how you react to various hormones. Some people have a really hard time on hormonal IUDs. And you can do the no period thing with every pill/hormone treatment out there. BasementDweller3 commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 Diet and exercise are good places to review habits as DDL suggested. You might consider working with a naturopathic doctor who can order the appropriate blood tests to determine what is happening with her cycle hormones. Oriental medicine (aka acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine or TCM) can really help to improve hormonal balance. Both of these alternative practices of medicine will address diet and lifestyle factors and treatment is more than a single visit which really helps when you are trying to make changes. Western doctors are highly dismissive of young women's reproductive health issues but unaddressed hormonal imbalances can cause more problems down the road including endometriosis, uterine fibroids, cervical dysphasia, ovarian cysts, PCOS, infertility and cancers. I think it is worth investigating the underlying issues more than just masking them with synthetic hormones. agness answered in Teens & Tweens about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by BasementDweller3… 0 0 re: hormone blood tests = pretty useless. They need to establish a baseline, since she's in puberty she won't have a stable one for a while, probably years, and the levels fluctuate so much in an adult they really won't test you for this under most circumstances even if you are having unusual hormonal problems, which this kid is not, she's having common completely understandable hormonal problems. And you would have to keep on going in for blood draws, it's just not worth it. Maybe they can test men effectively, they just don't really do this for women who aren't pregnant, maybe they will for menopause but again, probably not. Insurance will very likely not cover either. Also the treatment for most of those issues you describe is bc anyway, and she's not ill, she's just a heavy bleeder. BasementDweller3 commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 You might look for a women's health physical therapist, who can provide treatments that alleviate cramps and menstrual problems without, or in conjunction with, medication. If you haven't yet, find a gynecologist who specializes in diagnosing and treating concerns such as pelvic pain, heavy periods, endometriosis, and PCOS (not all gynecologists have expertise with these problems). Your daughter might just have a heavy period that will ease up over time, and if that is the case, she will at least learn about paying attention to her body and taking care of herself. However, if there is an underlying cause to her heavy periods, it would be best to find out sooner rather than later. Whatever treatment she would get now is likely to be simpler, less harmful, and with fewer side effects than the treatment(s) she would face if an underlying problem goes unaddressed. If her doctor does recommend that she take a birth control pill, there are a variety of types to choose from, including low-dose pills. Or the doctor might know of treatment options that are more suitable for a pre-teen/early teen. P.S. Kudos to you for talking with your daughter about this and taking her seriously! Too often gynecological problems get dismissed because "that's just part of being a woman." QandA answered in Teens & Tweens about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 1 I'm sorry to hear your young daughter has to suffer from such debilitating cramps and bleeding. Totally been there. Try asking yourself and her these questions: does she exercise regularly? What are her eating habits? Improving these and eating less hormone-laden meat and dairy would certainly help. Doctors don't really ask these sorts of things, and instead hand out birth control pills like candy. Also, I highly recommend the Diva cup if she is okay with inserting something into her vagina. I have heard tampons induce bleeding, and therefore more cramping. danieldaylewis answered in Teens & Tweens about 1 year ago | Report 3 comments by Griffin, BasementDweller3, and BasementDweller3… 0 0 You know, sometimes you just get screwed by life. And I doubt that if this girl switched over from eating meat (if she does) that she'd be any better served by eating soy products instead, which contain massive doses of phytoestrogens that can aggravate menopause symptoms and menstrual cramping. Anything you eat, no matter where it came from, was made of a living thing, and hence is full of some sort of hormones. Tampons don't increase bleeding, FYI. The issue with cramping for some women (not all) is that if women bleed faster than the tampons can absorb, cramping may result. Diva cups are pretty sweet, but even though I love the one I have now, there was no way 12 year old me would have ever used it. Not least due to physical comfort. Griffin commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 Nuva Ring is low dose, you put it in once a month, and can use it continuously too if you want so at worst you have some spotting. It is insertable, but so are tampons, and it's a lot less annoying than a tampon . If she's a heavy bleeder I imagine she's using tampons and probably pads too at the same time anyway. I know I did, with spandex biker shorts to keep the whole bloody diaper mess together. It did get better after 7 years. That's a looonnnggg time. I wasn't given bc to help with it and god I wish I had been, that my mother had been there to help out! If it helps to think of it this way, your daughter already has massive surges of hormones going through her system (hence the ridiculous bleeding), this will go on for several more years at the very least, and the idea behind bc is to actually dampen the hormone craziness and keep everything on an even keel. It's the number one reason for young teens to go on bc. It's very common and she won't be the only one she knows having to do this. Other than taking ibuprofen like popcorn (which isn't a great thing to do either), and bleeding through and on every piece of clothing she owns (oh so fun in middle and high school) while likely being in significant pain, she won't be missing out on much. And probably she'll be on a more even keel emotionally too without the violent PMS of the teen years, and better protected when she does start having sex because she'll already be equipped with bc (odds are really good she'll be having sex long before you know about it). She'll also likely better be on it in 3 or 4 years anyway, what's the difference really. If she can't tolerate the low dose estrogen/progesterone mix in the Nuva Ring, go with low dose progesterone minipills. It's a pain in the ass to take them every day but she won't have to be religious about it since she's not using it for birth control yet and it will have fewer side effects. Don't go with Depo shots. BasementDweller3 commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 re: Diva Cup - just try and imagine washing that out in your middle school bathroom in front of the mean girls who would tell everyone in the school. I don't think I'd volunteer for that particular kind of hell. BasementDweller3 commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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