But many parents are wary about the side effects and...

WHEN she starting having her periods at 12, she realised something was wrong.

It came every 21 days, instead of the usual 28 days.

But she and her parents did not do anything about it until she was about 14. Then her parents took her to see a specialist.

He recommended going on the pill. The birth control pill.

Being Asian, the girl’s parents were not comfortable with that solution.

Instead, they waited until she was16.

By then her period was coming every two weeks. Only then did she go on the pill to regulate her periods.

It was so bad that ithad affected her self-esteem, said her doctor.

Said Dr Lee Keen Whye, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Gleneagles Medical Centre: “She was going to the toilet very often and one day she actually fainted in school (from loss of blood) and had to be sent to the hospital.”

Yet all the tests done on the girl showed that there was nothing wrong with her.

Once the oral contraceptive pills (OCP) regulated her period, she stopped taking it.

“She took it for two months, and then stopped. Her parents were still not comfortable with it,” said Dr Lee.

When she was 17, her periods became extremely painful. None of the usual painkillers worked.

She went back to Dr Lee who then explained to her mother that her daughter was not using the OCP as a contraceptive but as a way of controlling her menstrual cycle and the symptoms.

Since then, she has been on the pill regularly and managing to live a normal life.

She is not alone.

Doctors here told The New Paper that more young girls are being prescribed OCPs to tackle menstrual disorders such as pre-menstrual tension (PMT) and dysmenorrhoea (painful menstruation).

As young as 12
And it’s not unheard of to find patients as young as 12on the pill, they said.

Dr Lee said two recent studies reflect what he sees in his practice.

However, adolescent girls are reluctant to seek medical treatment, leading to delay in diagnosis and treatment.

And it has been hard to convince parents of the merits of using the pill.

Dr Annapoorna Venkat, senior consultant at National University Hospital’s department of obstetrics and gynaecology, said parents are worried about subsequent effects of the pillon fertility and cancer, or that their daughters would become sexually active.

People just need to be educated, she added.

Like her, Dr Lee said it has been tough to convince parents. But once they know the facts, more become willing to allow their daughters to go on the pill.

He said: “They see that having their daughters feel sick all the time is not the way to go.”

Someparents are worried that their daughters will be distracted from major examinations like the PSLE if they happen to be having periods during that time.

“Girls are having their periods younger and younger. So I will advise these parents that being on the pill is not a bad thing for their daughters,” said Dr Lee.

It’s about regulation, not sex
Miss Thea Liu is among the increasing numbers of young women taking the OCP for non-contraceptive purposes .

When she let slip that she was on the pill, a male friend started behaving more ‘touchy-feely” around her.

However, Miss Liu was not interested in having sex.

She was on the pill to regulate her extremely irregular period and her irrational moods just before the onset of her period.

Miss Liu did not consult her mother nor seek her permission before going on the pill.

Miss Liu, 20, a bio-engineering student at the National University of Singapore (NUS) said: “I have been having irregular periods all my life. It can come after three months or after half a year or after two months. I never know when it’s coming and when my mood will become unstable. And I end up picking fights easily.

“So I consulted Dr Lee, who is my mum’s friend’s husband.”

Things have improved after she went on the pill about six months ago.

“I had some tummy upset the first time I took it. After that it was all right. The biggest benefit for me was that I became quite docile just before my period, instead of being very irritable and at risk of destroying friendships,” she said.

She told her mother about it after she saw Dr Lee and her mother was all right with her decision.

“She knows I’m quite a good girl and she knows there’s a very good medical reason why I’m on the pill.

“As for the guy who’s touchy-feely, I just avoid him now,” she said.

Pain so severe, some skip school
ONE of the conclusions of a National University Hospital study was that menstrual problems among adolescent girls are common and significant.

Out of 5,561 girls aged 12 to 19, more than eight in 10 reported various degrees of painful menstruation.

Among these, four in 10 classified their pain as mild, one in two as moderate, and one in 10 as severe.

The pain can be so bad, 24 out of every 100 girls reported being absent from school as a result, said the study by doctors from NUH’s department of obstetrics and gynaecology.

A second study was conducted by Bayer Schering Pharma last year among 139 students aged 19 to 20 at Raffles Place Park, Republic Polytechnic and Nanyang Technological University.

It found that a significant number of young women, about 6 per cent, suffer from severe PMT.

Physical symptoms of PMT include food and alcohol cravings, headaches, skin problems, swollen joints, water retention, weakness and weight gain.

Dr Annapoorna Venkat, senior consultant, department of obstetrics and gynaecology at NUH, said the NUH study was to investigate menstrual abnormalities in the adolescent population and how the problems are treated.

The most common treatment has been ordinary painkillers such as paracetamol, followed by stronger painkillers.

But for PMT (which is not included in her study), she said the oral contraceptive pill (OCP) is considered good for relief of PMT symptoms.

Recently, newer oral contraceptives are available specifically to relieve PMT symptoms, she added.

Doctors in other countries are also advising that OCPs are effective in treating menstruation-related disorders such as painful periods and heavy menstrual bleeding, as well as preventing unplanned pregnancies.

According to a new Practice Bulletin issued by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (ACOG) and published in the January 2010 issue of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, combined contraceptives containing both oestrogen and progesterone also offer disease prevention by reducing the risk of developing endometrial, ovarian cancer, and colorectal cancer.

Many types of OCPs are available in Singapore. One of them, Yaz, is the only OCP with three indications – contraception, acne and treatment of the symptoms of severe PMT.