Natural Remedies for Difficult Menstrual Cycles

My daughter (12 in just a few weeks) began her period last fall. Her cycles since then are close together (about three weeks apart - this last one just shy of that, I think), and relatively long (about a week). I had expected her to have a much lighter experience in the beginning, being so young, and have felt badly for her. But worse than that is the fact that during her periods, she practically turns into someone else. She has really rough mood swings, but usually only on the negative scale - from depression to anger - and is not very rational or reasonable during that week. In calmer moments, she acknowledges this, and bemoans how badly her period makes her feel. Physically, she doesn't have a lot of abdominal cramping, but she has backaches, headaches, and leg cramps. Often this all sneaks up on me, and when she crashes through her day like a dragon, I am frustrated with her, until she finally says something about it being her time of the month, and then I feel badly about not being more sympathetic. Last night after a really rough day, I realized I needed to get more serious about trying to help her through this. Because she is more independent these days than my younger children, I think I forget sometimes that she needs attention and TLC, too, and this is something she particularly needs help with.

So - any ideas or suggestions for some natural remedies that might help her? I have read about some herbal remedies for PMS, but I am not sure what she can use, being so young, and PMS doesn't seem to be as much a problem as the week of her period itself, being so frequent, long, and intense.

[HomeyT]

Have you looked into estrosense? That worked well for me.
What about maca?
Sorry I can't be of more help...it's been awhile since I was figuring out my own Pms issues

Do you have insurance to see a naturopath? This helped me tremendously!!!
She told me aunt flo should not be painful or terrible. Obviously it's 'there' but that too many women suffer.

Your poor daughter! That's awesome she has a compassionate mom!! that really does help!

[Psyche]

Maybe some cal mag?

Are you getting her good sources of iron to help with the depletion?

[MarynMunchkins]

Poor thing!

I'd definitely do some cal/mag for the cramping - a soak in epsom salts should do the trick too, and I'm sure she'd appreciate a hot bath alone.

Have you plugged her symptoms into the remedy finder at abchomeopathy.com? I've found quite a few remedies that help various things by doing that.

[Damselfly]

If it were my daughter I would try having her drink nettle infusions regularly and then drink red raspberry infusions during her period. I have seen a drastic improvement in my PMS symptoms and the duration, heaviness and intensity of my period since doing that. (I have a tendency towards flooding.) Oatstraw infusions would probably be helpful too but I'm crediting the nettle with my experience because I've heard other people find help from it too.

[Shutterbug]

I have a friend who recommended chasteberry for hormonal balance. I haven't done a lot of research on it and don't know if there is an age limit but wanted to throw it out there for you.

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[PaperMomma]

It's extreme, but the GAPS diet has reduced my pms related anxiety/mood swings drastically. If you want, I can pm you the blog post I wrote about it. Mine was really bad- I felt like a crazy person was inhabiting my body at those times.

Originally Posted by PaperMomma

It's extreme, but the GAPS diet has reduced my pms related anxiety/mood swings drastically. If you want, I can pm you the blog post I wrote about it. Mine was really bad- I felt like a crazy person was inhabiting my body at those times.

Yes, please do! We really need to figure something out for her.

[Soliloquy]

Originally Posted by PaperMomma

It's extreme, but the GAPS diet has reduced my pms related anxiety/mood swings drastically. If you want, I can pm you the blog post I wrote about it. Mine was really bad- I felt like a crazy person was inhabiting my body at those times.

We have a rather large fb support group (well over 100 women) for people on GAPS and every single one has had their cycles normalize, including the women with PCOS.

I would also look into iodine supplementation. If she has any other symptoms of thyroid issues, get a FULL thyroid panel done (the TSH test is useless by itself)

www.theiodineproject.com

www.stopthethyroidmadness.com

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Thanks, all, for the suggestions. I called her doctor yesterday, because I am unsure about doasages and such as her age. We are going to talk more about it sometime this morning.

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*dosages