Starting periods

[Bakebeansrule]

This is a bit of a strange question as it’s involving my daughter but I’m worried I will do my usual trick and jump to conclusions making things worse than they need to be.

She started her period in November. She’s 12 it lasted 7 days and was fine. 12 days later she started spotting again nothing too drastic for about 9 days then the last 5 days have been very heavy. She’s filling a pad every couple of hours and has leaked through to her bedding over night. I’ve spoken to her and she said she’s fine and I’ve read so much online about periods being all over the place to start with but the mum in me is starting to worry. I don’t want to over react and make this an awful experience for her.

The sensible part of me thinks it will probably settle down over the next 2 days like a normal period would but how long would you leave it before making a drs appointment? I’m ready to make an appointment now but don’t want to go against her wishes incase it makes her not want to tell me stuff in the future.

She’s absolutely fine in herself, has no pain at all. She’s a little bit irritable but that’s probably my fault to constantly asking how she is and if she needs anything.

Like I said sorry it’s a strange question but I don’t want to over react and at the same time I don’t want to ignore anything that could need looking into

[alpacagirl]

My daughters were heavy at the beginning. I don't know the details of how heavy but she was feeling tired and dizzy as well. She wanted to see the doctor ( she was 15 at the time) and had low iron ( ferritin) levels. She's always been the type of kid who would say " can you make a doctors appointment" if she felt like she needed it ( my boys are the opposite ). Her doctor ended up putting her on the pill because it was hard to keep her iron levels up even with supplements ( but she's older now 17). If your daughter is otherwise ok then maybe monitor the next few cycles and see if it settles and have plenty of iron rich foods in her diet. Obviously if the really heavy bleeding doesn't settle soon it's a good idea to have it checked. But yes normal for them to be erratic at the beginning ( and at the end..oh joy).

[Bakebeansrule]

Thank you for your reply. It’s so difficult because I don’t want to nag her so she worries or won’t tell me how she’s doing but I also don’t want her to ignore it if it’s not normal

[alpacagirl]

Yeah I know that feeling. My daughter doesn't like me making a fuss about things either ( even if it's because I care). How is she now ? Has it settled ?

[Bakebeansrule]

She said it’s starting to settle then doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. I feel the more I fuss the less likely she is to tell me anything. I’ve mentioned that if there’s not a noticeable difference by Thursday I think we should just run it by her dr

[alpacagirl]

Sounds like a good plan. That's quite a long period, at least the doctor can make sure she's not getting low on iron and give her some reassurance about what's considered normal etc. I always tell my daughter the good, bad and ugly of my perimenopause periods etc...so she's pretty open now if she has any issues.

[Bakebeansrule]

She said it’s almost stopped now so that would make it 3 weeks exactly. I’m pretty sure it’s all down to hormones and will settle soon. I think it’s great to be open about these things

[alpacagirl]

Yes it would be just her hormones still being all over the place. Hopefully it settles in the next few cycles. I wish my mum had talked to me more about menopause stuff. She hid it all from us. Would wait until we were all out to work/uni for the day and then have a big cry ( she had a lot of depression). We had no idea how much she was struggling. It's only now that I'm going through it that she's telling me about her experience.