Amalia

Brief Outline:

Amalia is 16. The early years of her periods were really painful. She would vomit and be unable to get up from bed, and found she was missing school most months because of her period pain. With support from her mum, she went to see a GP. She was given options that she could try. Having looking into her options, she started a progestogen only pill, which made her bleeding irregular, but which resolved her period pain. She has now stopped this, and her periods remain much more manageable. She would recommend trialling this pill to other young people experiencing painful periods.

When Amalia’s periods were really painful, she could not leave her bed to go downstairs for food or to get to school, and this impacted on her education.

Well, like for school life, I literally couldn’t come into school like when I had my period, like for the first three days of my period I will have to stay home, and like I couldn’t leave my bed, like I had to like stay in my bed, I couldn’t move and it... it would just like be so painful, like I’d have to get like food brought upstairs because I couldn’t leave, so that was every month; it was pretty mad….

How did school react to that?

Don’t think they were worried because I was like off for like reasons, so I guess I got... my education was like lacking a bit ’cause I was off school so often so I did miss quite a bit, but it wasn’t that big of a deal because it’s not... it wasn’t like important school years, it was like Year 8 and 9, so…

Amalia felt that being in a mixed class made it difficult to ask questions which limited the education she had about periods.

We were like 12 years old, they weren’t very like well-behaved in those lessons, so it kinda like made them less important than they should have been, and I feel like we didn’t get the right amount of education that we needed, because if it was just a class of girls, like we would have asked a lot more questions, but the boys were there, so it was kind of all, you know, uncomfortable.

Amalia’s school used to have free pads in the toilets, but they had sometimes been stolen and wasted. She now has to go to the nurse’s office to get them, which is a bit tricker for her.

I think at... for a few years we had this thing where we would have like pads in the bathroom, just like on the side: that didn’t really work because my school is quite like bad and people would just like steal the pads and then throw them around and then like take tape them on people’s backs, so they didn’t work completely, but now what they’ve done is they’ve put them in the nurse’s office, but I feel like that kinda... that access is a bit different, so it’s harder to get them. But I guess if you’re in a better-behaved school, having pads like easier to get is a good thing to have – but not in mine – not at all.

Amalia was given options about different treatments by her GP. Having researched these, she tried the POP. This helped her period pain, but made her acne worse. She has now stopped, but her periods remain manageable.

And do you remember if they gave you any other choices; did you ever try any other treatments?

I think they did, but then they brought up the pill, so I was like: “Yeah, I need that,” ’cause it was, sounded like the best option. And they brought up both of the pills and I thought the... the one that... the progestogen-only one would be way better suited for me.

Mm.

Yeah.

Was it some... had you researched it, or kind of looked up what... had you kind of thought what they might ask and looked it up beforehand, or was it just on the explanations?

I think we did... like they... I think they gave us like a little bit of time to think about it before we actually got prescribed, so we did do a bit or research afterwards, yeah.

OK, OK. So... and where... was that when you went to the internet?

Yeah.

OK. So... and what... do... do you remember what you looked up, or what you thought? What was it about the pill that made you think that’s what you wanted to try?

I think because it wasn’t the one that you had to like get off it and it was just like you were taking it every single day; that was what made it better for me, I think.

OK. So, you were a bit worried about having the... the gap?

Yeah, yeah, I didn’t want that.

OK. Was there anything else about the pill, or hormones, that you wondered about, or you thought about?

I don’t think so; I don’t actually remember, to be honest.

No, no, OK. So, you were just really glad to be offered something—

Yeah.

—that you could take every day?

Mm.

Yeah. And then how... how quickly did it help? What... what was your experience of starting the pill?

I think for the first few months it just... it didn’t really work, not the first months, for the first month it didn’t work, and then it would just... it just kicked in and I just had periods and there was no pain – it was brilliant. But for... it did like... it did... I did still bleed for a lot of it, but then it just... it got rid of them completely and... yeah. And I loved it, but I was like, ‘yeah, I’m gonna get off them now,’ and I’m really happy that I did because it completely like cured my period pain to be honest, being off them.

OK. And the irregular bleeding, was that... you... were you OK to manage that, or was it... was it regular bleeding still?

I think for a bit it did make my bleeding a bit more stranger, ’cause I would just randomly like start bleeding, but it wasn’t that bad ’cause I just wear like a pad if I saw it happen, but it wasn’t like the worst thing ’cause at least it wasn’t pain, so...

Yeah. So, from your point of view, the fact that it had stopped being painful was absolutely fine?

Yeah, that was a good thing.

Yeah. [chuckles] And, did you have... and did you have any side effects or anything on the pill apart from that?

Yeah, I did, my acne got really bad, I did have like pretty bad acne; it’s still like not going away. I have so many scars on my face now because of it, but I guess it’s not the biggest deal ever, so... yeah.