How do teen ballerinas handle heavy periods?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This would be a case where I would talk to the teacher or director of the ballet school.

NP, but my daughter would be mortified if I did something like this. True, it’s a medical issue, but it wouldn’t feel that way to her.

As a society, we’ve made some progress in erasing menstrual stigma, but still, not many teenage girls would feel comfortable having adults, (other than their doctor) discussing the details of their periods.

If OP’s daughter is OK with it, then that’s fabulous, maybe we’ve made more progress than I thought. But I don’t think mine would be.

Even if OP’s DD had the confidence to talk about it, a dance school that doesn’t already have wiggle room on dress code is not going to be open-minded about working around a girl’s heavy period. In my experience, sadly, they would take an old-fashioned view that heavy period=too fat=not a dancer, even though that is not accurate at all. And then they would consciously or unconsciously begin the weed-out process.

In a similar situation, we got the feedback “if you can’t make it work, this might not be the place for you.”

Anyway, dance or not, this sounds like something that gets in the way of everyday life and is worth a visit to the doctor.

[Anonymous]

Tampon, period underwear, and then add a thicker wingless pad to the actual leo too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This isn’t going to be an easy answer for you:

In the olden days, they handled them by staying sufficiently underweight to lose their period. Hopefully you know all of the reasons that this is a bad idea- RED-S, etc.

Now, there are a few options. First, heavy periods aren’t normal. And I say this as a person who suffered through them from 13 to 26 and avoided all sorts of things and lived with insane stress because I couldn’t go 45 minutes sometimes without going through a super plus tampon.

Take her to a doctor and discuss dysmenorrhea and continuous birth control- if the concept of bcp freaks you out, you need to think of it as hormone control that will help your Dd live her life. Make sure she doesn’t have PCOS or endometriosis. Check her iron levels.

Continuous bcp changed my life but I wonder what I might have done or achieved had I not spent my adolescence worrying about period accidents or getting 2 hours of sleep at a time because I had to set alarms to avoid accidents at night.

If it’s her first year, heavy periods might be normal. My dd had a few sudden heavy periods (and long lasting) until her second year where it normalized some. Hopefully her class won’t fall on her first or second period day.

[Anonymous]

My kid switched this year to a school where everyone wears a skirt (for other reasons than her period, obviously). This week she commented that it was such a relief not to worry about leaking or anyone seeing a pad.

I think all schools should switch to this model. I had no idea that it stressed her out so much before.

[Anonymous]

Tampax Pearl Ultra Absorbency tampons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have her try a cup, they are amazing

A cup would never hold the amount that comes out of me over the course of two hours. Plus, removing, emptying and reinserting a cup as a 12 year old? In a PUBLIC place where people are knocking on the door to hurry up? It'd NEVER happen.

[Anonymous]

I’m a pediatrician and a ballet dancer. I’d recommend an appointment with your pediatrician to discuss options. OCPs might be a good fit, with the possibility of eliminating her period completely (since there is no medical reason for her to have a period). I have many teen girls who love this option. Also if she’s not able to approach her dance teacher, then the older girls at the studio will have advice on specific products.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is period underwear just a different kind of diaper?

Yes, if that’s what she uses make certain she changes it promptly and teach her to clean herself up to avoid getting a UTI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have her try a cup, they are amazing

A cup would never hold the amount that comes out of me over the course of two hours. Plus, removing, emptying and reinserting a cup as a 12 year old? In a PUBLIC place where people are knocking on the door to hurry up? It'd NEVER happen.

Have you actually used a cup PP? They are way more absorbent than tampons or pads...and when you get the hang of them, you can empty them out and reinsert in less than a minute...but for OP's DD, I say talk to a GYN and get her on BCP, there is no reason she should have a period at all.

[Anonymous]

Not PP but you clearly don’t have the kind of heavy period that’s being discussed here. Let me give you the full picture: after an hour or so, the cup is full to the brim, it’s overflowing. When you remove it, your hands get full of it. There’s no sink inside of your stall.

[Anonymous]

+1 tampon and nude/skin toned period underwear. Thinx makes them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a pediatrician and a ballet dancer. I’d recommend an appointment with your pediatrician to discuss options. OCPs might be a good fit, with the possibility of eliminating her period completely (since there is no medical reason for her to have a period). I have many teen girls who love this option. Also if she’s not able to approach her dance teacher, then the older girls at the studio will have advice on specific products.

My daughter - 14 - takes the OCP every single day. She started taking it because she had a large ovarian cyst. It made her skin look much clearer, her moods are much more stable and she is obviously thrilled with not having a period. Frankly I'm surprised its not more common. I also took the pill everyday until I turned 50, when I wasn't having babies of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not PP but you clearly don’t have the kind of heavy period that’s being discussed here. Let me give you the full picture: after an hour or so, the cup is full to the brim, it’s overflowing. When you remove it, your hands get full of it. There’s no sink inside of your stall.

DP. Have you actually tried a cup? You might be surprised at the actual amount of blood. Also, it’s much better at blocking leaks than a tampon in my experience.

[Anonymous]

Ob ultra

[Anonymous]

just fyi with all these BCP recs. My daughter had horrible depression with it, we started it for her PCOS, she couldn't do it.

I had horrible migraines while taking it for years, didn't know they were related.

And even though it is "safe"- the girl is 12 yo.