Candice

Brief Outline:

Candice is 16. She has markedly heavy periods, which have impacted hugely on her sleep and schooling. She uses medication to try to stop the flow, but has felt frustrated about not being able to be given a diagnosis or further tests when she has seen the GP in the UK, though was told that she might have PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) when she saw a doctor on holiday. She thinks young people should be told what to really expect when they start their periods including when to ask for help, and that they can trust their gut instincts if something doesn’t feel normal. From her experience of seeing health professionals about periods, she thinks that young people’s pain and bleeding is just put down to normal adolescence. She has taken photos of her heavy bleeding and used this to support her explanations and thinks that this has helped her difficulties be taken seriously. Clips are read by an actor.

Candice started at school with a really heavy bleed that badly stained her clothes. Luckily it was the end of the school day and she was able to rush home (read by an actor).

Perhaps if you could just tell me a little bit about your experience with periods, maybe starting from when they started and what they were like then?

Yeah. So, I’m currently 16 and I first started them when I was 12, 12 and a... yeah, 12. And at first, like the first time I ever had them was like really, really heavy, like it leaked through my whole trousers, it stained the whole thing and it wouldn’t come off at all, I had to throw it away, and everything. And it was during school time.

Mm.

And, I don’t know, it was too embarrassing, so I just hid it up with a blazer, I wrapped the blazer around my thingy, my trousers, but thank God it was the end of the day.

Oh. And were you OK to get home?

Yeah. And I mean you could still see it all the way to the bottom, ’cause it stained a lot, but I had the blazer wrapped round, mostly covered, so that was fine; I just quickly rushed home.

Candice started her periods after a lot of her friends, and has turned to them for information. She feels comfortable talking with her family, but thinks this might not be the case for everyone (read by an actor).

Most of my friends hit it way before me, so like if there was something wrong, I’d just go to them and I’d say, “Oh, do you have this? What do I do with this?” Like a lot of them like knew I had problems before like it even reached my family, but my family reached it quite quick, and I could easily talk to them. It was fine. But I feel like I’m blessed to have that, but a lot of other people, like till this day when I speak to them, like they’ll have a lot of problems and they’re telling me about it, but like they’re too scared to tell their families back home, or an adult.

Candice has a medical pass which lets her go to the toilet when she needs to. Her heavy period bleeding led to frequent leaking at school and needing to change or borrow school clothing (read by an actor).

OK. And how... how do you kinda manage that at school with the bleeding: have school been with all of that?

So, I’ve got a toilet pass. They’ve given me a toilet pass for it ’cause when I went, yeah, I asked for a paper. And for that, like one of my medical... like the teacher downstairs in the medical room, like I’ll just be hoping that she knows about it already now. But like I used to go down to the office like every hour. Like I used to go down like five times a day and I’d have to change and take like some of the school’s spare skirts; that was quite a mess.

And has... has any... have you ever had kinda any reactions from anyone or... if you have had a difficulty with leaking at school?

It’s just the people spotted the blood from the back, like my friend. Or like sometimes if I’ll tell a teacher, like, or... and you’re trying to cover up the skirt, and I’ve got a really long jacket on, they’re like: “Take your jacket off,” and I’m just looking at her like: ‘no, I can’t take it off.’

And have they understood, or did you have to say?

Like at the end... like if it’s a female teacher, at the end, she’ll keep arguing about it and then at the end I’ll go to her on the side and I’ll say, “Miss, I can’t, I’ve leaked through it,” and then she’s like: “OK, I’ll let the next teacher know, but you can’t be in that lesson, you need to go sort yourself out.” But kind of like if it’s like a male teacher, I won’t really be able to speak about it.

OK. So, you’d be happy to have that conversation with a female teacher?

Yeah. With a guy it’s a bit more awkward.

But like before that it was all messed up, I was missing most of school ’cause of it. And then last year, like... and the year before, I got the medical pass. And this time, like they’re slowly looking at it.

Candice went to the GP because her school required a medical pass for toilet access, which she wanted to help her manage her heavy period bleeding (read by an actor).

OK. And ha... how did that come to be, that conversation with school? Was that... how did that feel?

The first... no, so the first... when I was like missing so much of school, went to a GP, got like... I asked them... ’cause from school to get a medical pass, like a toilet pass, you need to get like a paper confirmation from the GP. So, I got one of those for the school. And then the medical teacher, I told her about it. And then she was like: “All right, we’ll see.” And then she’d see me frequently just go down and miss lessons telling her I’ve leaked through again. And she’d see the amount I’ve leaked and she’s like: “OK, that’s quite a lot.” And then they... she told me to like bring in my spare trousers as well ’cause I used too much of the school’s property, it ran out.

Candice resorted to taking photos of her menstrual bleeding when she was trying to persuade the GP to take her period bleeding difficulties seriously (read by an actor).

Can you tell me anything that you’ve maybe noticed or thought about trying to explain about periods or about their heaviness or what they’re like for you, or questions you’ve been asked?

Me... like me, at first I was like really shy about talking about it; I made my make my mum do most of it. But now ’cause like I’ve like gone to the GP quite a lot for it, tried the thingy, talked to them so much about it, like every time something goes wrong, I’ll take a picture, I’ll show it them ’cause that’s the only way they’ll like bat an eye to it, like that’s the only time they’ll pay attention to it. But I feel like... like the photos are just really needed for it or else they don’t believe.

Candice has scoliosis which causes back pain. When her muscles tense with period cramps, this makes her back hurt double (read by an actor).

Recently, I think for like the past year I’ve started to get really bad cramps as well. But before that I didn’t usually have it. It’s just starting like this year, year and a half.

OK. And can you tell me a little bit about that and what that feels like?

Oh, so it’s like... you know like below your stomach?

Mm.

Like, there, it’s like... feels like your muscles are being really tense, like they’re being really pulled, and then sometimes like my back will hurt. And also ’cause like I’ve got scoliosis as well, so the pain of scoliosis, plus the cramps, like it just hurts double.

Mm, so that’s really tricky. So, it aggravates your... the backpain that you were already having?

Yeah.

OK. And how... does... does the pain add to the kind of impact of the periods?

It’s ’cause scoliosis, like my back, as it is, it already aches. And then I feel like... ’cause my body just goes a bit more weaker, it just feels like all my muscles are just tight on my back as well, so it just doubles on it.

Candice found it difficult to make sense of the responses she had to whether she could have tests for her period difficulties. She had a different response when she saw a doctor when travelling overseas to see family (read by an actor).

Can you tell me a little bit about that, about what it’s been like when you’ve gone to talk to people about your periods?

So, most of the time they’re just telling me to get a blood test. But to be fair, the blood tests are never clear enough, like I’m always getting different answers for it. Like the most obvious answer’s always: “Oh, you’re anaemic, you’re anaemic and you’ve got really low iron,” and then they’re always giving like folic acid and iron tablets; that’s pretty much the only solution for it at the moment. And then saying like: “Oh, we’ll see in a few years.” Like my mum, she started questioning, and she’s like: “Oh, is there like any possible like scans she could get?” And they kept saying “no, she has to wait another eight years before she can get a scan”, as like part of the rules, and my mum’s like: “What if it just gets worse? And we don’t know what it is,” and then they kept saying “No, like right now at the moment, our only solution is just taking tablets for your iron”.

OK. So... and have they... have they been giving you any explanations for... that you’ve heard about what’s been happening or what your periods are like or... or told you anything about what to ex... expect?

They’re telling me it’s what happens with most teenage girls, and like that it’s what happens with most teenage girls. Over the years, it’s gonna get better, and everything. But to be fair, you know, I just came back from holiday, I’m coming back from [place name], and my mum, when we went there, we went for a scan since they won’t let us do it here, and they told me I had PCOS there. So, they checked for me there and they told me I had PCOS.

OK.

So, I don’t know. We haven’t told the doctors here yet, but... yeah.

OK. So, you... you... when you were on holiday away you went to see a doctor there to see—?

Yeah.

And can you tell me a bit about what that was like? They’d—

Well, we asked for a scan and a few blood tests. She said my vitamins were really, really low. She did a scan. She said like the start of PCOS, like the early stages.

Candice uses short courses of norethisterone to manage heavy bleeding when she needs to, rather than taking a contraception tablet every day (read by an actor).

So, have you ever been offered... and do they help you, those pills? You just take them when you’re bleeding, is that right?

Yeah, yeah, it just stops it.

OK. But you don’t like doing that every time?

Like I’m fine with it, but like, I don’t know, I feel like there could be another solution.

Has... has anyone ever talked to you about other solutions or other ideas? Have you been offered kinda any other treatments?

Like it’s all mainly... I think once I’ve been given like two options between two pills, but like the side effects of the other one was like lifetime side effects that were kinda negative, so I was like: ‘no, I’d rather just take this one and I have to stop it each time.’

OK. So, were you offered one that you took every day and you were worried about the side effects?

Yeah.

OK. And so, you’ve gone for the one where you just take it when you have your period?

Yeah.

OK, and that does work for you a bit?

Yeah.