RN Nursing · Antepartum · Practice question
A mother brings her teenage daughter to the local health clinic. The client reports menstrual periods that are very heavy lasting 5-7 days. The client reports using a tampon and heavy pad to control the menstrual flow. The mother asks if birth control will help her daughter's periods. How should the nurse respond?
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"Surgery is needed to diagnose the problem."
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"Birth control will encourage your daughter to be sexually active."
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"Tampons should not be used because of toxic shock risk."
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✓
"A short course of hormonal therapy may be helpful."
Answer & explanation
Correct: "A short course of hormonal therapy may be helpful."
The teenager is describing menorrhagia — heavy menstrual bleeding lasting 5 to 7 days that requires both a tampon and a heavy pad simultaneously. This pattern is common in adolescence due to anovulatory cycles resulting from an immature hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis. Hormonal therapy, such as combined oral contraceptives or progestin-only preparations, is a first-line treatment for heavy menstrual bleeding in adolescents because it regulates the endometrial cycle, reduces prostaglandin production, and lightens flow. A short course of hormonal therapy is therefore an appropriate and accurate response to the mother's question. Stating that surgery is needed to diagnose the problem is incorrect because most adolescent menorrhagia is managed conservatively and imaging or laboratory tests, not surgery, are the initial diagnostic steps. Suggesting that birth control will encourage sexual activity is a non-therapeutic, stigmatizing statement that does not reflect evidence-based counseling; hormonal contraception has multiple non-contraceptive indications. The statement about tampons and toxic shock syndrome risk, while carrying some truth, is not the priority nursing response and is not directly relevant to addressing the mother's question about treatment.
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